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The  White  Maifs 


I.  Shirby  Hodge 


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Treasure  %oo7n 

UTUPIA 


PRESENTED  BY 

W.  W.  FLOWERS 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2010  with  funding  from 
Duke  University  Libraries 


http://www.archive.org/details/whitemansburdensOOtrac 


The 
White  Man's  Burden 


A  SATIRICAL  FORECAST 


By 

T.  SHIRBY  HODGE 


(Jl^'^^-'V* 


BOSTON:  THE  GORHAM  PRESS 

THE  COPP  CLARK  CO.,  LIMITED,  TORONTO 


Copyright,  191 5,  by  Richard  G.  Badger 


All  rights  reserved 


The  Gorham  Press,  Boston,  U.  S.  A. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I     Bewilderment 7 

II     A  Strange  Reception 18 

III  Hospitality 29 

IV  Increasing  Bewilderment     ....     41 
V    A  Remarkable  Story 49 

VI     Perpetual  Motion 60 

VII     The  Great  Civil  War 71 

VIII     The  New  Physics 82 

IX  An  Astounding  Experiment       •      •      •     93 

X    Anarchy 102 

XI     The  Camera 124 

XII     A  Bit  of  History 137 

XIII  The  Great  Expulsion 153 

XIV  The  Storeroom 175 

XV    The  Journey 181 

XVI     My  Old  Home 200 

XVII     The  Catastrophe 215 


283857 


The  White  Man's  Burden 

CHAPTER  I 

BEWILDERMENT 

I  COULD  not  make  out  at  all  what  had  hap- 
pened to  me.  Here  I  was,  not  a  solitary  liv- 
ing thing  in  sight,  plodding  along  under  a  scorch- 
ing sun,  in  a  region  entirely  unknown  to  me. 
The  landscape,  the  vegetation,  the  air  itself  seemed 
strange,  and  I  stopped  a  while,  notwithstanding 
the  heat  and  the  lack  of  shelter,  to  look  about  me, 
collect  my  wits,  and  try  to  make  out  where  I  was, 
and  how  I  came  to  be  there.  A  cursory  survey  of 
my  surroundings  showed  that  I  was  on  a  broad 
plain,  extending  behind  me  as  far  as  I  could  see. 
I  must  have  traveled  over  this  level  ground  for 
many  miles  to  reach  the  place  where  I  was  stand- 
ing. To  the  left  I  could  just  make  out  a  blue 
streak  along  the  horizon,  which  I  thought  might 
be  distant  hills,  or  perhaps  water,  a  lake,  or  it 
might  be,  the  sea.  Toward  the  right  I  could  see, 
also  in  the  far  distance,  what  were  unmistakably 

7 


283857 


8        THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

hills,  with  rounded  tops  and  appearing  to  be  clad 
with  forests.  In  front  of  me,  and  much  nearer 
than  the  hills  to  the  right  were  other  hills,  not  very 
high,  verdant  with  foliage,  and  cleft  with  many 
valleys,  in  one  or  two  of  which  I  thought  I  caught 
glimpses  of  water  falls.  These  hills  did  not  seem 
to  be  more  than  a  mile  or  so  away,  and  the  pros- 
pect of  reaching  the  shade  of  the  trees  so  soon  af- 
forded me  great  relief,  for  I  was  really  suffering 
from  the  heat,  and  felt  both  hungry  and  thirsty.  I 
might  find  fruit  and  was  sure  to  find  water.  Mean- 
while, as  I  felt  very  tired,  I  could  endure  to  rest 
a  while  before  I  went  on  farther.  The  plain  over 
which  I  was  traveling  was  covered  with  grass,  five 
or  six  inches  high,  and  although  this  was  some- 
what brown  and  dry,  my  seat  was  comfortable 
enough.  The  sun  was  pretty  high,  and  it  seemed 
to  me  that  I  must  be  not  far  from  the  equator. 
At  any  rate  it  was  a  little  past  midday,  though  I 
found  to  my  surprise  and  consternation  that  I  had 
no  watch.  Now  I  always  carried  a  watch  wher- 
ever I  went  and  felt  lost  without  one.  I  could  not 
have  left  it  at  home,  and  I  must  have  lost  it  some- 
where or  perhaps  have  been  robbed.  And  now  I 
began  again  to  think  of  things  more  practical. 
Where  was  I?     How  did  I  come  to  be  here? 

I   must   have   walked,   and   I   could   remember 
nothing  at  all  of  my  journey.     I  seemed  to  have 


BEWILDERMENT  9 

been  dropped  there,  perhaps  carried  there  by 
somebody  and  abandoned.  Kidnapped  perhaps. 
But  I  remembered  no  such  performance;  1  had  suf- 
fered no  violence,  and  I  had  not  been  robbed,  un- 
less of  my  watch.  There  was  money  in  my 
pocket,  a  pocket  knife,  and  to  my  great  relief  a 
revolver,  which  I  had  taken  into  the  country  when 
I  began  my  vacation.  That  I  remembered  dis- 
tinctly —  going  up  into  New  Hampshire  to  spend 
my  vacation  on  a  farm.  And  that  was  the  last 
thing  I  could  remember  until  I  suddenly  found 
myself  in  my  present  predicament.  What  had  oc- 
curred in  this  interval? 

For  a  time  I  cudgeled  my  brain  in  vain.  Finally 
I  came  to  the  conclusion  that  I  must  have  de- 
veloped a  double  consciousness,  and  had  been 
masquerading  somewhere  as  a  different  person 
from  my  true  self.  I  had  read  of  such  cases,  and 
it  seemed  at  the  time  to  be  the  only  explanation 
of  my  situation.  That  would  account  for  the 
blank  in  my  consciousness,  and  also  for  the  fact, 
that  I  found  myself  in  a  new  and  strange  locality. 
But  my  true  self  had  returned  to  consciousness  and 
now  I  remembered  perfectly  who  I  was,  and  where 
I  was,  when  this  alien  personality  or  second  con- 
sciousness had  taken  possession  of  me.  My  life 
came  back  to  me  true  and  clear. 

I  was  born  in  New  York  City,  educated  at  Yale, 


lo      THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

and  was  just  starting  out  in  the  world  as  clerk  in 
the  Barclay  National  Bank,  with  a  good  chance 
for  advancement  if  I  could  prove  my  worth.  This 
summer  I  had  taken  my  vacation  in  July,  and 
gone  up  to  a  farmhouse  near  Lake  Sunapee  to 
spend  it.  The  weather  had  been  rather  torrid 
since  my  arrival,  and  —  and  —  at  this  point  I  lost 
track  of  myself. 

To  account  for  this  gap  in  my  recollection  I 
was  absolutely  at  sea.  No,  stop !  I  did  remem- 
ber telling  my  landlady  after  breakfast  that  I  was 
going  out  presently  to  watch  the  men  at  work  in 
the  hayfield.  But  I  must  have  gone  somewhere 
else,  probably  to  the  railroad  station,  two  miles 
away,  and  then  come  on  here.  But  where?  That 
I  must  find  out  forthwith. 

All  of  this  self-communion  had  taken  me  about 
two  minutes.  At  the  very  instant,  apparently, 
when  I  recovered  consciousness,  or  my  own  con- 
sciousness (if  I  had  a  double  one)  I  had  stopped 
in  my  tracks  to  take  my  bearings,  and  now,  as 
the  sun  was  pretty  hot,  and  I  was  tired,  I  set  out, 
without  further  delay,  for  the  green  hills  and 
shady  woods  I  saw  not  far  ahead.  I  plodded 
along,  expecting  every  minute  to  come  upon  some 
path  or  road  which  I  might  follow  and  so  perhaps 
arrive  at  some  house  or  meet  somebody  of  whom 
I  might  make  inquiry  as  to  my  whereabouts.     But 


BEWILDERMENT  ii 

I  had  no  such  luck.  I  was  in  a  pathless  wilder- 
ness, and  I  was  puzzled  to  imagine  in  what  part 
of  the  country  I  could  be.  As  I  have  already  said, 
I  inferred  from  the  height  of  the  sun  that  I  was 
considerably  further  south  than  New  Hampshire 
and  the  course  I  was  taking  was  toward  the  west, 
so  that  the  water  I  thought  I  saw  at  a  distance 
on  the  left  was  south  of  my  present  position.  I 
thought  it  probable  that  I  was  somewhere  in  the 
southwestern  part  of  the  United  States,  and  that 
the  water  might  be  a  loop  or  bend  of  the  Mississ- 
ippi, or  possibly  the  Colorado,  or  some  of  the 
bayous  of  Louisiana,  I  was  entirely  unacquainted 
with  that  part  of  the  country,  and  had  not  the  re- 
motest idea  how  it  looked.  Maybe  I  was  on  the 
"  Staked  Plains." 

Presently,  as  I  neared  the  hill  for  which  I  was 
making,  I  spied,  a  few  hundred  feet  ahead,  in  the 
direction  in  which  I  was  going,  a  flash  of  light  from 
a  point  near  the  ground,  that  looked  like  the  re- 
flection of  sunlight  from  some  bright  object  hidden 
in  the  grass.  A  few  steps  more  and  it  vanished. 
Yet  a  few  more,  and  there  was  another  flash,  not 
quite  in  the  same  place.  What  could  it  be?  It 
suggested  a  gun,  but  I  could  see  nobody,  and  there 
was  no  motion,  as  of  a  moving  body,  in  the  grass. 
Perhaps  it  was  an  old  tin  can  left  by  some  picnic 
party,  though  why  anyone  should  picnic  in  such 


12      THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

a  place  was  not  easy  to  understand.  However, 
there  was  nothing  for  me  to  do  but  to  march  up 
and  find  out  what  it  was.  It  might  help  me  to 
clear  up  the  mystery  of  my  whereabouts,  at  all 
events,  and  no  matter  what  it  might  turn  out  to  be, 
I  could  not  be  much  worse  off  than  I  was  now.  As 
these  thoughts  were  running  through  my  mind,  I 
was  drawing  nearer  to  the  spot  from  which  the 
flashes  had  seemed  to  come,  and  now  I  began  to 
be  able  to  distinguish  their  source.  I  could  make 
out  a  sort  of  dun  colored  object,  lying  low  in  the 
grass,  and  having  a  decidedly  artificial  appearance, 
which  became  more  and  more  evident  as  I  ap- 
proached. At  length  I  reached  the  spot,  and 
found  that  the  object  that  had  attracted  my  at- 
tention was  a  dark  brownish  red  mass,  shaped  like 
a  flattish  dome,  and  looking  as  if  it  might  be  the 
upper  part  of  a  large  globe,  the  greater  portion  be- 
ing under  the  surface  of  the  ground.  The  portion 
that  was  visible  was  eight  or  ten  feet  in  diameter 
and  perhaps  ten  inches  high  in  the  center,  thus 
forming  a  segment  of  a  sphere  of  huge  dimensions. 
At  various  points  irregularly  distributed  over  the 
surface  were  small  spots  ground  flat,  highly  pol- 
ished, which  reflected  the  sun's  rays  at  various 
angles,  these  flashes  of  light  having  first  attracted 
my  notice.  The  mass  appeared  as  if  it  were  made 
of   some   hard  gum   or  composition,   like   gutta 


BEWILDERMENT  13 

percha  or  vulcanized  rubber,  and  as  if  it  had  been 
roughly  daubed  on  some  structure  underneath, 
though  the  polished  surfaces  had  a  metallic  glint, 
somewhat  bluish,  and  it  did  not  take  me  long  to 
find  out  that  it  was  something  I  had  never  seen 
before,  and  of  whose  nature  I  was  entirely  igno- 
rant. It  encouraged  me,  though,  for  it  showed 
that  the  region  was  inhabited,  and  as  I  rose  from 
my  brief  examination  and  looked  about  for  other 
signs  of  human  kind,  I  saw  another  similar  disc 
about  a  hundred  feet  away,  and  still  another  on  the 
other  side,  and  as  I  took  a  wide  sweep  of  the 
plain,  so  far  as  I  could  see,  were  these  little  ele- 
vations, some  showing  dark  and  even  black,  from 
my  standpoint,  and  others  glittering  with  scintilla- 
tions of  light.  I  could  not  imagine  what  these 
things  could  be.  I  passed  my  hand  over  the  near- 
est one.  It  was  hard,  coolish,  and  I  fancied  that 
I  felt  a  slight  trembling  or  vibration,  something 
like  that  produced  in  a  house  when  a  heavy  wagon 
passes  on  a  stony  street.  This  suggested  the 
idea  that  it  might  be  the  roof  of  some  sort  of 
habitation.  Could  it  be  a  cyclone  cellar,  such  as 
I  had  read  about  as  being  constructed  in  certain 
parts  of  the  country,  where  cyclones  or  tornadoes 
were  to  be  expected?  I  looked  carefully  for  an 
entrance,  and  circled  about  at  various  distances 
from  it,  to  see  if  there  were  any  signs  of  burrow- 


14      THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

ing,  or  of  trap  doors,  but  there  was  nothing.  If 
these  things  really  were  cyclone  cellars  I  must,  In 
all  probability,  be  somewhere  in  the  southwestern 
United  States. 

I  returned  to  the  dome  I  had  come  to  first,  and 
struck  it  with  my  knuckles  to  see  if  it  was  hollow. 
It  seemed  to  be  solid,  for  there  was  no  reverbera- 
tion. Then  I  took  my  revolver  from  my  pocket 
and  hammered  with  that.  There  was  still  no 
reverberation,  but,  to  my  great  surprise,  there  was 
the  sound  of  a  human  voice,  faint,  as  though  very 
distant,  but  gradually  becoming  stronger.  At 
length  I  caught  words,  and  in  a  moment  they  were 
clear  and  distinct,  and  appeared  to  come  from  In- 
side the  dome. 

"Who  are  you?"  someone  asked,  and  I  re- 
plied: 

"  I  am  a  stranger  here,  and  have  lost  my  way." 

"  Where  are  you  from?  " 

"  New  York." 

"  Um-m!     Wait  a  moment." 

Well  here  was  something  to  hold  on  to,  any- 
way. A  telephone,  apparently,  with  a  man  at  the 
other  end,  but  a  telephone  of  a  new  sort,  of  which 
I  had  never  heard.  It  must  be  an  experimental 
thing,  I  thought.  Some  obscure  Inventor  has  put 
it  here  to  test  it  before  he  brings  it  out.  Unless 
Indeed  my  first  Idea  was  correct  and  the  dome  was 


BEWILDERMENT  15 

the  roof  of  an  underground  habitation.  I  de- 
termined to  test  this  again,  and  so  I  rapped  upon 
it  sharply  with  my  pistol.  In  a  moment  I  heard 
the  same  voice  again. 

"Well!" 

"  Where  are  you  ?     Let  me  in." 

"  You  cannot  come  in.     There  is  no  entrance." 

"  Then  where  are  you?  " 

"  I  am  many  miles  away.  You  are  rapping  on 
a  solid  sphere." 

So  it  was  a  telephone,  after  all. 

"  We  are  sending  you  a  guide." 

"  Thank  you.     Shall  I  wait  here  for  him?  " 

"  Walk  on  toward  the  hills  eastward  from  where 
you  are  at  present,  and  you  will  meet  him  in  about 
half  an  hour." 

"  Eastward?  Why,  I  was  traveling  toward 
the  west.  There  was  some  mistake.  I  shouted 
again. 

"  You  mean  westward,  don't  you?  " 

No  reply. 

"  I  say,  you  mean  west  instead  of  east,  do  you 
not?" 

Silence. 

I  rapped  loudly,  but  could  elicit  no  answer. 
Whoever  was  at  the  other  end  of  the  line  had 
evidently  gone  away,  and  I  was  left  to  my  medi- 
tations.    However,  I  was  encouraged  and  knew 


1 6      THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

that  aid  and  information  were  near.  The  hills  I 
was  making  for  were  evidently  in  the  west.  There 
was  the  sun,  on  my  left  hand,  and  the  only  other 
hills  to  be  seen  were  in  the  opposite  direction,  to 
the  north.  Behind  me  was  the  endless  plain.  So 
I  plodded  on,  revolving  in  my  mind  the  structure, 
material  and  purpose  of  these  curious  objects  that 
now  lay  behind  me. 

At  length  I  reached  the  base  of  the  hills  that 
stretched  for  miles  on  either  side,  and  skirted 
them  for  a  short  distance  in  each  direction  in 
search  of  a  path,  which  I  spied  at  length  in  one  of 
the  green  valleys,  running  along  with  a  gentle  in- 
cline beside  a  clear  stream  of  running  water  that 
made  its  way  down  and,  to  my  astonishment,  flowed 
into  the  plain  I  had  just  crossed,  and  not  five  hun- 
dred feet  from  the  line  I  had  traversed.  So  I  had 
not  been  far  from  water  all  the  time  I  had  been 
so  thirsty,  and  I  could  not  help  wondering  that  I 
had  not  discovered  it  before,  but  I  suppose  it 
flowed  sluggishly  through  the  almost  level  plain 
and  was  hidden  by  the  grass.  At  any  rate,  I  had 
missed  it,  and  now  I  made  haste  to  satisfy  my 
thirst.  I  had  to  scoop  it  up  in  my  hand,  as  Diog- 
enes did  when  he  had  thrown  away  his  cup,  and 
found  it  deliciously  cool  and  refreshing.  Then 
having  found  a  shady  spot,  not  far  from  the  brook, 
I  sat  down  upon  a  moss-covered  rock  and  looked 


BEWILDERMENT  17 

about  me,  while  waiting  for  the  guide  to  put  in  an 
appearance.  I  was  sitting  in  the  fringe  of  a  deep 
forest.  There  were  a  few  bushes  between  me  and 
the  lower  ground,  while  ahead  of  me  the  path 
wound  upward  and  was  soon  lost  in  the  green  un- 
dergrowth of  a  dense  forest.  The  trees  were 
not  of  the  kinds  with  which  I  was  familiar;  there 
were  no  pines,  hemlocks,  spruces,  maples,  beeches 
or  elms,  and  I  could  discover  no  fruit  on  any  of 
them,  nor  any  berries  on  the  bushes,  so  I  had  to 
hold  my  hunger  in  abeyance  until  I  should  reach 
some  human  habitation. 


CHAPTER  II 

A   STRANGE   RECEPTION 

AND  SO  I  sat  and  waited,  and  it  seemed  that 
my  fatigue  combined  with  the  balminess  of 
the  air,  the  refreshing  shade,  the  soHtude  of  the 
forest  and  the  murmuring  of  the  stream  put  me 
to  sleep,  for  I  awoke  suddenly  to  the  sound  of  a 
distant  shout,  followed  by  singing  in  a  childish 
voice,  and  presently  I  saw  a  young  negro  lad  com- 
ing down  the  path  towards  me.  He  was  chanting 
some  negro  melody,  it  appeared,  in  a  curious 
dialect,  with  a  broad  a  sound  predominating.  Al- 
though it  seemed  to  be  English,  it  was  English  in 
such  a  distorted  form,  that  I  could  only  catch  a 
word  here  and  there,  and  his  song  was  for  me 
mostly  a  jumble.  As  he  drew  nearer  he  stopped 
the  song  and  became  silent,  but  came  on  down  the 
descending  path,  dancing  and  swinging  his  arms  in 
the  instinctive  and  irrepressible  manner  of  child- 
hood. He  was  oddly  clothed,  too,  although  as  I 
had  never  seen  a  southern  negro  at  home,  I  could 
not  say  that  his  dress  was  unusual,  and  it  was  very 

i8 


A  STRANGE  RECEFFION  19 

evident  to  me  by  this  time  that  I  had  landed,  after 
my  wanderings,  somewhere  in  the  South  —  where 
I  should  now  soon  find  out. 

The  boy,  who  seemed  to  be  about  ten  years  old, 
and  very  active,  robust  and  well-built,  was  dark, 
but  not  coal  black,  and  had  on  a  tunic  or  blouse  of 
white  cloth,  reaching  to  the  knee,  with  a  bright-red 
belt  about  the  waist.  His  arms  were  bare  to  the 
shoulder,  and  he  had  nothing  on  his  feet.  As  he 
approached  I  could  not  but  admire  the  picture  he 
presented  of  perfect  health,  intense  vitality,  and 
graceful  movement,  and  the  fine  suggestion  of  sup- 
ple muscularity,  which  would  develop  with  ad- 
vancing years.  I  may  seem  to  exaggerate,  but  he 
reminded  me  of  the  beautiful  bronze  Mercury  in 
the  great  Museum  of  Naples.  "  This  is  what 
comes,"  I  said  to  myself,  "  of  plain  living  and  an 
outdoor  life.     What  a  fine  lad!  " 

In  a  few  minutes  he  was  beside  me  and  staring 
at  me  round-eyed  as  if  I  were  some  monstrous  ap- 
parition, but  I  lost  no  time  and  immediately  set 
about  getting  information  as  to  my  whereabouts. 

"  Where  are  we,  boy?  "  I  said.  "  What  State 
is  this;  where  did  you  come  from  and  who  are 
you?" 

He  continued  to  stare  and  I  began  to  lose  pa- 
tience. 

"  Come,  come,  wake  up.     What  are  you  star- 


20      THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

ing  at?  "  said  I;  as  he  seemed  to  be  a  little  fright- 
ened, I  tried  to  reassure  him. 

"  Don't  stare  at  me  so.  I  am  not  going  to  harm 
you.     Tell  me  where  I  am,  can't  you?  " 

"  I  never  saw  a  white  man  before,"  he  replied. 
"  You  are  the  first  one  that  ever  came  round  here." 

So,  I  thought,  this  must  be  in  the  Black  Belt  I 
have  heard  so  much  about,  but  how  does  this  httle 
nigger  come  to  use  such  good  language,  with  none 
of  the  darky  accent  or  idioms?  Is  this  one  result 
of  the  Tuskegee  business?  I  had  never  had  any 
great  faith  in  that,  but  somehow  this  little  boy  had 
certainly  been  well  brought  up,  in  spite  of  his  bare 
feet  and  scanty  clothing. 

"Never  saw  a  white  man?  Well,  now  you 
have  seen  one,  loosen  your  tongue  and  tell  me 
where  I  am  and  where  you  are  going  to  take  me." 

"  You  are  in  Africa,  sir,  and  my  father  sent  me 
over  to  find  you  and  bring  you  back  to  his  house." 

"Africa?  This  —  Africa?  Oh,  I  see,  that  is 
a  nickname  for  some  portion  of  the  black  belt,  like 
Egypt  in  Illinois.     But  where  are  we  going?  " 

"  Over  the  hill  to  the  east,"  he  said;  pointing  in 
the  direction  whence  he  had  come. 

"  To  the  east  —  why  that  is  west." 

"  No,  sir,  that  is  east  from  here." 

This  boy  must  be  half-witted,  I  thought,  to  my- 
self, talking  as  he  does  about  Africa  and  the  east. 


A  STRANGE  RECEPTION  21 

However,  I  was  in  his  power.  I  did  not  know 
where  I  was  and  he  did.  I  was  hungry  and  he 
could  take  me  where  I  could  get  food.  I  was 
eager  for  the  company  of  human  beings  and  even 
this  boy  was  better  than  no  one,  and  he  could  guide 
me  to  others,  where  I  could  procure  rest  and  lodg- 
ing. So  we  started  on,  the  boy  running  and  danc- 
ing ahead,  and  I  following  at  a  dignified  distance, 
looking  about  as  we  progressed  through  the  forest 
to  see  if  I  could  recognize  anything  I  saw.  The 
boy  ran  on  much  like  any  other  boy,  making  little 
side  excursions  among  the  bushes  beside  the  path, 
apparently  capturing  a  bug  of  some  kind,  now  and 
then,  or  starting  up  a  small  bird,  which  flew  away 
so  quickly  that  I  rather  heard  than  saw  it. 

It  began  to  be  monotonous,  and  I  was  tired. 

"  How  much  farther  have  we  to  go?  "  I  called 
out. 

"  Only  a  little  way,"  he  replied,  '*  maybe  half 
a  mile." 

On  we  plodded.  I  began  to  think  it  must  be 
half  a  rustic  mile,  which  may  mean  three  or  four 
miles,  according  to  the  section  of  country  you  hap- 
pen to  be  in.  But  presently  I  was  rejoiced  to  see 
that  the  forest  looked  thinner  ahead.  I  could  see 
glimpses  of  sky  between  the  trees  and  it  soon  be- 
came evident  that  we  were  approaching  an  open- 
ing, a  lake  perhaps  or  else  the  end  of  the  forest. 


22      THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

Suddenly  I  remembered  the  curious  dome-like 
structure  I  had  examined  just  before  I  entered  the 
shade  of  the  trees,  and  I  asked  the  boy  if  he  knew 
what  they  were. 

"  Yes,"  he  said,  "  but  I  am  not  allowed  to  tell." 

*'  Some  new  invention,"  I  said,  "  just  as  I 
thought;  somebody  is  making  experiments  with 
them." 

"  We  can  talk  through  them  sometimes,"  re- 
plied the  lad,  and  not  a  word  more  would  he  utter 
on  the  subject,  though  I  plied  him  with  questions 
for  quite  a  while,  and  so  we  plodded  on  in  silence. 

The  woods  grew  lighter  and  lighter,  the  sky 
clearer  and  brighter,  and  at  length  we  emerged 
from  the  shadows  of  the  trees,  and  stood  upon  the 
brow  of  a  gentle  slope,  and  looked  out  upon  the 
most  charming  landscape  I  had  ever  beheld. 

I  was  looking  down  upon  a  broad  valley,  bor- 
dered on  either  side  by  low  sloping  hills  like  the 
one  on  which  we  were  standing.  Straight  ahead 
the  landscape  melted  away  in  a  far  distant  misty 
blue.  The  prevailing  hue  was  green  although 
here  and  there  were  patches  of  brown,  red,  blue 
and  yellow,  indications  of  cultivation  and  varied 
crops.  To  this  variety  of  color  were  added  the 
differing  shades  of  green,  from  dark  to  light  and 
from  yellowish  to  bluish,  forming  altogether  at- 
tractive contrasts  of  light,  color  and  form.     Scat- 


A  STRANGE  RECEPTION  23 

tercd  here  and  there  were  patches  of  shrubbery  and 
trees,  fruit  orchards  and  shade  trees,  and  dotting 
the  landscape  all  over,  as  far  as  the  eye  could  see 
were  dwellings  as  I  took  them  to  be,  white,  but 
not  glaringly  so,  being  tempered  apparently  by 
slight  admixtures  of  gray  or  blue.  There  were 
within  sight  three  or  four  large  structures,  that 
looked  to  me  like  public  buildings  of  some  sort, 
located  as  they  were  mostly  on  slight  elevations, 
with  imposing  platforms  and  wide  winding  steps 
in  front  of  them.  The  whole  surface  of  the  valley 
was  gently  undulating,  and  under  the  level  rays 
of  the  setting  sun  presented  a  fairy  scene. 

The  sun  was  getting  low,  and  I  now  began  to 
suspect  that  the  lad  was  right  when  he  insisted  that 
we  were  headed  toward  the  east,  for  so  far  as  I 
had  observed  we  had  not  altered  our  general  di- 
rection since  we  started,  and  yet  the  sun  was  not 
in  front  of  us,  but  behind,  and  the  shadows  of  the 
trees  under  which  we  stood  were  cast  along  our 
path.  There  could  be  no  doubt  of  it.  We  were 
looking  toward  the  east,  and  the  sun,  while  behind 
us,  was  at  our  left,  and  we  were  south  of  it.  Some- 
how and  somewhere  T  had  crossed  the  equator  and 
was  now  in  the  southern  hemisphere.  For  a  mo- 
ment I  was  overwhelmed  by  the  thought,  and  sank 
down  upon  the  turf  to  think.  What  a  wanderer 
I  must  have  been !     The  boy  was  very  likely  right, 


24      THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

and  we  were  in  Africa,  In  Africa,  very  likely 
8,000  or  10,000  miles  from  home.  I  felt  in  my 
pocket  for  money,  and  took  it  out  to  count.  It 
did  not  take  me  long.  One  dollar  and  sixty-nine 
cents!  Ten  thousand  miles  from  home,  with 
$1.69!  I  was  completely  overcome,  almost 
fainted,  but  was  roused  by  the  lad's  voice. 

"  That  is  of  no  use  here,"  he  was  saying. 

"  What  is  of  no  use?  " 

"  That  money,"  said  he.      "  It's  trash,  no  good." 

"  How  am  I  ever  going  to  get  home  again?  "  I 
murmured  to  myself  in  despair. 

"  My  father  will  see  that  you  get  back  to  your 
own  country,"  the  boy  replied.      "  Let  us  go  on." 

There  was  nothing  for  me  to  do  but  follow  my 
guide,  and  so  I  rose  slowly  from  the  ground  and  we 
went  on  down  the  slope. 

While  we  were  halting  on  the  brow  of  the  hill, 
I  had  seen  a  few  human  figures  moving  about 
among  the  houses,  and  quite  a  multitude  In  front 
of  one  of  the  large  edifices  which  I  assumed  were 
public  buildings.  As  we  advanced  I  saw  that  all 
of  those  who  were  near  enough  to  be  distinguished 
were  black,  or  at  least  what  we  call  "  colored  "  in 
the  United  States. 

"Are  they  all  niggers  here?"  I  said,  as  we 
plodded  on. 

The  boy  stopped  Instantly  and  with  a  dignity 


A  STRANGE  RECEPTION  25 

I  should  have  believed  impossible  in  one  of  his  age 
and  race  replied  coldly: 

"  We  do  not  use  that  word  here,  nor  do  we  al- 
low any  man  to  use  it  to  us." 

"And  what  can  you  do  to  prevent  it?"  I  re- 
plied rather  hotly,  a  little  nettled  at  being  pulled 
up  short  by  a  pickaninny. 

"  I,  myself,  can  at  this  moment  do  nothing. 
You  are  older  and  stronger  than  I.  But  I  shall 
report  your  words  to  my  father,  and  him  you  will 
have  to  obey." 

"  I've  half  a  mind  to  give  you  a  good  thrashing 
for  your  impudence,"  I  said,  but  regretted  the  out- 
burst, when  I  came  to  consider  that  I  was  entirely 
at  the  mercy  of  these  people  until  I  could  fall  in 
with  men  of  my  own  race  and  find  shelter  with 
them.  The  lad  took  no  notice  whatever  of  my  last 
remark,  excepting  that  he  seemed  to  hurry  his  pace 
a  little,  as  we  approached  the  outlying  houses  of 
the  settlement. 

When  we  were  within  perhaps  a  hundred  yards 
of  one  of  the  houses,  a  tall  negro  emerged  from 
it  and  came  slowly  toward  us. 

"  There  is  my  father,"  cried  the  lad,  and  ran 
to  meet  him.  They  both  stood  still  and  waited 
for  me  as  I  advanced  slowly,  partly  overcome  with 
fatigue  and  partly  uncertain  of  my  reception. 

His  son  had  evidently  already  infomied  him  of 


26      THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

my  uncomplimentary  remarks,  for  as  we  met  his 
first  words  were : 

"  We  are  negroes,  sir.  Be  advised  and  bear 
that  in  mind." 

"  I  did  not  mean  to  offend,"  I  replied.  "  The 
word  is  common  enough  in  my  country." 

"  Yes,  yes,  I  know,"  said  he,  "  but  you  will  not 
use  it  here ;  but  come  into  the  house  and  get  food 
and  drink  and  sleep,  for  you  are  overcome  with 
fatigue  and  hunger,  and  need  them  all,"  and  he 
turned  toward  the  house. 

As  we  walked  on  I  pondered  much  upon  the  ex- 
traordinary reception  I  had  met  with  from  a  black 
man,  and  the  still  more  extraordinary  circum- 
stances in  which  I  found  myself.  I  had  not  yet 
really  found  out  where  I  was,  nor  how  I  got  there, 
for  the  boy's  few  words  had  produced  little  im- 
pression. To  be  sure  I  knew  now  that  I  was  in 
the  southern  hemisphere.  I  had  satisfied  myself 
as  to  that.  And  I  might  very  well  be  in  Africa, 
although  I  dici  not  remember  ever  having  heard 
or  read  of  any  such  place  as  that  in  which  I  now 
was.  My  host,  with  his  son,  was  ahead  of  me,  and 
I  had  a  good  opportunity  to  scrutinize  his  person. 
He  was  above  the  middle  height,  perhaps  five  feet 
ten,  and  well  proportioned,  about  forty  years  of 
age  as  near  as  I  could  judge,  muscular  in  appear- 
ance, well  nourished  without  the  slightest  tendency 


A  STRANGE  RECEPTION  27 

toward  corpulence,  an  oval  face  a  little  full,  with 
a  frank,  open  expression,  and  a  penetrating  eye. 
He  had  on  a  long,  flowing  garment,  a  sort  of  toga, 
thrown  over  his  left  shoulder,  and  reaching  within 
six  inches  or  so  of  the  ground.  His  head  was 
bare,  with  close-cropped  wooly  hair  and  no  indica- 
tion of  baldness.  His  feet  were  bare,  excepting 
for  sandals. 

"  These  people  are  evidently  not  savages,"  I 
said  to  myself,  "  but  I  must  be  a  little  careful  of 
what  I  say  or  do,  until  I  find  out  more  about  them." 

We  were  now  nearing  the  house  and  the  negro 
turned  to  me  and  Invited  me  again  to  enter,  but  I 
longed  to  see  the  face  of  one  of  my  own  kind  and 
as  politely  as  I  could,  I  declined  his  invitation. 

"  You  are  very  kind,"  I  said,  "  and  I  appreciate 
it  very  much,  but  I  wish  you  would  please  direct  me 
to  the  house  of  some  white  man,  where  I  can  stay 
until  I  am  able  to  make  arrangements  for  my  re- 
turn home." 

A  benignant  smile  overspread  his  countenance 
as  he  answered  me. 

"  There  is  not  another  white  man  within  thou- 
sands of  miles.  You  will  have  to  accept  of  my 
hospitality,  and  we  will  all  try  to  make  you  com- 
fortable. You  carmot  leave  at  present.  You  will 
understand  that  you  are  not  a  prisoner.  You  are 
under  no  constraint,  but  you  will  find  it  both  nee- 


28      THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

essary  and  convenient  to  remain  with  us  for  a  few 
days.  You  are  here  for  a  purpose,  of  which  you 
are  entirely  ignorant,  but  which  will  be  explained 
to  you  to-morrow.  For  the  present  enter.  You 
will  find  food  and  a  bed  within,"  and  he  led  the  way 
through  the  door  into  a  large  square  room,  which 
apparently  was  the  chief  room  in  the  house,  and  of 
course,  I  could  do  nothing  but  follow  him. 


CHAPTER  III 

HOSPITALITY 

IN  one  corner  of  this  apartment  sat  a  woman 
busily  engaged  with  a  hand  loom.  She  rose  as 
we  entered  and  my  host  introduced  her  as  his  wife. 
She  bowed  slightly  and  called  out  to  some  person 
in  another  room.  I  could  not  understand  what  she 
said  and  yet  her  speech  sounded  strangely  like  Eng- 
lish, but  English  so  twisted  and  modified  that  it 
was  almost  unintelligible.  I  say  almost,  for  I 
could  distinguish  a  word  here  and  there  that  I  could 
understand. 

A  young  girl  of  13  or  14  made  her  appearance 
and  brought  in  some  dishes  of  food,  which  she 
deposited  upon  a  table  in  the  center  of  the  room. 
My  host  politely  indicated  that  T  should  eat,  at  the 
same  time  placing  a  chair  for  me  at  the  table.  I 
sat  down  without  more  ado  and  proceeded  to  do 
justice  to  a  most  excellent  meal,  although  I  par- 
took of  it  alone.  The  food  was  simple  but  good, 
a  meat  stew,  which  I  took  to  be  mutton,  fine  bread 
and  butter,  with  cheese  and  fruit  of  various  kinds, 
sweet  and  acid.     It  was  now  growing  dusk,  and 

29 


30      THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

candles  were  lighted  and  placed  upon  the  table 
and  on  brackets  attached  to  the  walls,  which  filled 
the  apartment  with  a  mellow  light.  I  noticed  that 
the  candlesticks  appeared  to  be  of  a  richer  yellow 
than  brass,  but  at  the  time  did  not  suspect  that 
they  were  made  of  gold. 

While  I  was  eating  and  drinking  (an  excellent 
red  wine,  by  the  way)  little  was  said,  and  I  had  an 
opportunity  to  look  about  me.  The  woman  had 
left  the  room,  and  the  boy  had  skipped  out  into  the 
kitchen  to  keep  his  sister  company  as  soon  as  we 
entered  the  house.  My  host  went  to  and  fro, 
sometimes  leaving  the  room  for  a  few  minutes  at 
a  time,  and  while  he  was  with  me  spending  most 
of  the  time  at  a  front  window,  gazing  out  and 
apparently  in  deep  thought. 

I  had  noticed  on  entering  that  the  house  had  no 
second  story,  but  was  broad  and  low.  The  room 
in  which  I  was  taking  my  meal  was  perhaps  twenty 
feet  square  and  eight  feet  high.  The  floor  was  of 
stone,  the  central  portion  being  covered  with  mat- 
ting in  the  form  of  rugs  of  a  size  to  be  easily 
handled  for  cleaning.  The  walls  were  painted 
with  decorative  panels,  mostly  representing  flow- 
ers and  landscapes,  and  I  noticed  particularly,  with 
some  surprise,  that  there  were  no  corners  or  angles 
in  the  entire  apartment,  all  points  of  junction  being 
rounded  off  with  great  care.     The  ceiling  seemed 


HOSPITALITY  31 

to  be  of  paneled  stone  work,  so  far  as  I  could 
judge. 

I  finished  my  meal  and  addressed  my  host,  de- 
termined to  ascertain  more  about  my  whereabouts 
and,  if  possible,  something  about  the  remarkable 
chain  of  events  that  had  brought  me  into  my  pres- 
ent predicament.  So  I  said  to  him,  with  as  diplo- 
matic a  manner  as  I  was  able  to  assume: 

"  Please  tell  me  just  what  has  happened  to  me, 
where  I  am,  how  I  came  here,  who  you  all  are,  and 
what  is  going  to  become  of  me?  I  am,  of  course, 
helpless  in  your  hands,  if  as  you  say,  there  are  no 
white  men  in  this  vicinity,  and  I  wish  to  be  pre- 
pared to  meet  with  courage  whatever  fate  may 
have  in  store  for  me." 

"  Have  no  fears,  sir,  you  will  not  be  harmed  in 
any  way.  In  fact,  I  hope  that  your  brief  stay  with 
us  will  be  of  advantage  to  you  and  to  your  race. 
But  you  are  now  in  no  condition  to  learn  the  truth 
about  the  matters  you  mention.  You  are  ex- 
hausted, mentally  and  physically,  and  categorical 
answers  to  your  questions  would  throw  you  into 
such  a  state  that  we  might  fear  bad  results.  In  the 
morning  I  will  give  you  a  full  explanation.  Some 
things  I  shall  tell  you  will  astonish  you  beyond 
measure  and  probably  seem  incredible,  until  you 
are  gradually  convinced  of  their  truth.  But  now 
you  must  sleep.      I  will  conduct  you  to  your  room." 


32      THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

"  But,"  I  replied,  "  I  cannot  sleep  with  this  un- 
certainty harrowing  my  very  soul,  especially  after 
your  hints  of  dreadful  things  to  come." 

"  I  said  nothing  about  dreadful  things.  They 
will  be  most  pleasing  and  instructive,  although  very 
unexpected  and  amazing.  You  are  to  learn  some 
things  you  never  knew  before." 

"  Oh,  tell  me  now.  I  shall  toss  about  all  night 
if  I  am  left  in  ignorance." 

"  Believe  me,  you  will  not.  You  will  sleep  well. 
I  will  see  to  that.  But  this  conversation  must 
cease.     Follow  me." 

And  there  was  nothing  for  me  to  do  but  to  fol- 
low him,  with  my  mind  seething  with  indignation, 
wearied  in  body  and  soul,  exasperated,  defiant,  but 
unhappily  conscious  of  my  helpless  and  desperate 
situation.  We  passed  into  a  short  corridor  and 
thence  into  a  small  room,  almost  bare  of  furnish- 
ings. There  was  a  window  opening  out  of  doors 
and  another  over  the  door,  both  guiltless  of  sash 
or  glass.  There  really  was  no  door,  only  a  door 
opening.  There  was  a  screen,  however,  before  the 
door,  which  effectually  hid  the  room  from  the 
observation  of  any  person  outside.  This  screen 
was  beautifully  embroidered  and  seemed  to  me, 
who  am  not  skilled  in  such  matters,  to  be  a  real 
work  of  art.  With  a  brief  good  night  my  host 
now  left  me,   having  deposited  the   candle  on  a 


HOSPITALITY  33 

small  stand  on  one  side  of  the  room.  I  should  say 
that,  before  he  left  the  room  he  called  my  attention 
to  a  night  robe  hanging  from  a  hook  in  the  wall, 
and  to  a  bath  room  that  opened  from  the  further 
end  of  the  room.  There  were  two  chairs  in  the 
place,  a  few  clothes  hooks  upon  the  wall  on  one 
side,  and  on  the  other  a  large  mirror  that  appeared 
to  be  a  part  of  the  wall,  not  built  or  let  into  the 
wall,  but  as  if  it  were  a  part  of  the  wall  itself,  and 
this  I  afterward  found  to  be  the  case.  There 
was  not  a  sign  of  bed  or  bedstead,  but  there  were 
soft  thick  mats  upon  the  floor,  and  a  hammock 
stretched  across  one  corner,  while  underneath  the 
hammock  was  a  pile  of  large  closely  woven  soft 
warm  wraps  that  reminded  me  of  Navajo  blankets. 
By  this  time  I  judged  it  to  be  nearly  or  quite 
nine  o'clock,  and  I  set  about  getting  ready  for  bed 
immediately,  but  first  I  thought  I  would  have  a 
look  at  the  bath  room,  and  see  what  the  prospects 
were  in  that  direction.  So  I  poked  my  head 
through  the  door,  and  gasped  in  astonishment. 
The  bath  was  sunken  in  the  floor,  of  ample  dimen- 
sions and  was  lined  with  bright  yellow  metal,  which 
had  all  the  appearance  of  gold.  But  of  course 
that  was  impossible.  It  was  probably  brass  (the 
only  other  thing  I  could  think  of) ,  I  had  never 
heard  of  a  brass  bath  tub,  but  here  was  one  evi- 
dently.     I  scrutinized  it  more  closely.     The  lin- 


34      THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

ing  was  perfectly  smooth,  polished  and  without  any 
indication  of  seam  or  joint.  It  had  a  deeper, 
richer  hue  than  any  brass  I  had  ever  seen,  and  I 
finally  came  to  believe  it  really  was  made  of  gold. 
If  so,  my  host  must  be  a  chief,  at  least,  perhaps  a 
king.  It  flashed  upon  my  mind  that  I  might  be  in 
Abyssinia  and  that  this  man  was  Menelik.  But 
no,  that  was  impossible.  I  was  too  far  south,  and 
besides  there  was  no  pomp  in  the  dwelling,  no  of- 
ficials, no  retinue,  no  servants,  and  the  house  was 
clearly  no  palace.  But  it  must  be  an  immensely 
wealthy  man  who  could  afford  gold  baths. 

While  these  thoughts  were  crowding  each  other 
in  my  mind  I  began  to  remove  my  clothing  and 
prepare  for  the  bath.  There  was  no  furniture  in 
the  room,  but  plenty  of  hooks  and  outstanding 
rods  along  the  walls,  and  a  profusion  of  towels. 
I  was  already  half  undressed,  when  I  bethought 
myself  of  the  water  supply.  At  each  end  of  the 
bath,  at  the  bottom,  was  a  wide  mouth-like  open- 
ing, flaring  a  little,  reminding  me  of  the  mouth  of 
an  ancient  tragic  mask,  and  at  one  end,  in  the  floor 
at  the  head  of  the  bath  were  two  small  levers  stick- 
ing up  in  the  air  at  an  angle.  One  end  was  evi- 
dently the  handle  and  the  other,  beyond  the  bearing 
or  fulcrum,  was  attached  by  a  curious  joint,  half  pin 
and  half  hinge,  to  an  upright  rod,  which  ran  down 
through  the  floor.     By  each  lever,  in  the  floor  it- 


HOSPITALITY  35 

self,  inlaid,  was  a  letter,  "  H  "  and  "  C,"  which 
I  took  to  mean  Hot,  and  Cold,  for  these  people 
evidently  used  English  habitually.  At  any  rate, 
I  turned  down  the  one  marked  "  H  "  and  such  a 
gush  of  water  followed,  that  I  thought  I  had 
broken  something,  and  turned  it  back  in  haste, 
when  the  flow  instantly  ceased,  without  any  leak- 
ing. So  I  tried  the  other  lever,  and  found  it 
worked  the  same,  and  furnished,  as  I  had  sup- 
posed, warm,  hot  or  cold  water,  at  will.  But  there 
was  no  way  to  stop  the  outflow,  no  plug  or  stopper, 
and  the  water  ran  out  as  fast  as  it  came  in.  At 
the  lever  end  or  head  of  the  bath  there  was  a  slight 
ridge  or  bulge  of  the  bottom,  crosswise,  that  acted 
as  a  sort  of  dam,  and  threw  the  water  a  little  up- 
wards as  it  rushed  out,  like  a  reef  in  a  running 
stream. 

It  was  evident  that  the  bath  could  not  be  filled 
like  the  tubs  I  had  been  accustomed  to,  and  so  di- 
vesting myself  of  the  rest  of  my  clothing,  I  stepped 
in  and  turned  on  the  water,  which  tore  through  the 
little  sluice  gates  in  a  rushing  torrent,  and  out 
through  the  lower  end. 

"  Terrible  waste  of  water,"  I  thought,  "  but  that 
does  not  concern  me,"  and  I  proceeded  with  the 
most  delightful  bath  I  ever  had  in  my  life.  I  was 
bathing  in  a  running  stream,  about  two  inches  deep, 
slipping  swiftly  over  a  floor  of  gold.     It  seemed 


36      THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

the  very  height  of  luxury.  The  water  was  just 
of  the  right  warmth,  clear  and  pure,  and  all  the 
dust  and  dirt  of  my  long  tramp  was  whirled  away 
in  a  flash,  so  that  when  I  had  finished,  and  turned 
the  water  off,  the  bath  remained  as  clear  and  fine 
as  when  I  entered  it.  The  towels  were  a  luxury 
in  themselves,  so  soft  and  fine  were  they.  I  was 
now  greatly  refreshed  and  was  soon  ready  for  bed. 
After  pondering  the  matter  a  while,  I  concluded 
to  sleep  on  the  floor  instead  of  taking  to  the  ham- 
mock, and  so  after  spreading  some  of  the  blankets 
in  such  a  way  as  to  make  a  soft  place  to  lie  on,  I 
wrapped  myself  in  others  and  lay  down. 

I  anticipated  a  sleepless  night,  for  my  brain  was 
all  in  a  whirl.  The  strangeness  of  my  surround- 
ings had  unnerved  me.  I  had  not  yet  obtained 
really  the  slightest  clue  to  where  I  was,  how  I  got 
there,  who  my  host  was,  what  was  to  be  done  with 
me,  or  how  I  was  to  get  home  again.  To  be  sure, 
nothing  had  so  far  happened  to  cause  me  to  fear 
or  to  anticipate  any  future  trouble.  I  had  been  re- 
ceived with  courtesy,  and  aside  from  the  fact  that  I 
was  in  a  country  of  blacks  and  actually  the  guest  of 
a  negro,  there  was  nothing  to  cause  me  any  annoy- 
ance. And  yet  what  could  I  make  of  the  cryptic 
utterances  of  my  host?  What  could  he  have 
meant  by  saying  that  he  had  things  to  tell  me  in 
the  morning  that  would  astonish  me  and  probably 


HOSPITALITY  37 

tax  my  credulity?  There  had  seemed  to  me,  for 
an  Instant,  while  he  was  speaking,  to  be  a  veiled 
hint  of  things  unpleasant  for  me  to  learn.  But 
what  was  the  use  of  all  this  conjecture?  I  should 
learn  all  about  it  in  the  morning.  Just  now  I 
was  comfortable  enough,  and  I  must  sleep.  I  lis- 
tened for  a  few  minutes  attentively  to  hear  if  any- 
one were  prowling  about.  There  was  not  the 
slightest  sound.  It  was  quiet  as  a  house  of  the 
dead.  I  began  to  feel  warm  and  cosy  as  I  tucked 
the  blanket  under  my  chin,  my  thoughts  began  to 
wander,  and  all  of  a  sudden  I  opened  my  eyes  and 
behold,  it  was  morning.  A  bird  was  singing  not 
far  from  my  window,  the  room  was  light  as  day, 
and  cool  with  the  freshness  of  the  dawn.  I  un- 
wrapped the  blankets  and  rose  from  the  floor, 
where  I  had  had  a  good  night's  rest.  I  felt  en- 
tirely recovered  from  my  fatigue,  my  head  was 
clear,  I  felt  a  ravenous  appetite,  and  was  ready  for 
anything  that  might  happen. 

It  did  not  take  me  long  to  dress,  and  as  I  heard 
no  one  stirring  outside,  I  took  the  opportunity  to 
look  about  a  little  more  narrowly  than  I  had  felt 
like  doing  the  night  before.  First,  I  went  into 
the  bath  room.  Yes,  the  bath  was  lined  with  gold 
—  of  that  there  could  be  not  the  slightest  doubt. 
In  the  outer  room,  my  sleeping  room  —  bedroom 
it  could  hardly  be  called,  for  it  contained  no  bed 


38      THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

—  I  took  up  the  candlestick,  which  I  had  examined 
curiously  as  I  retired;  it  was  also  made  of  gold, 
and  appeared  to  be  solid  and  not  plated,  for  it  was 
quite  heavy.  It  was  severely  simple,  without  orna- 
ment or  chasing  of  any  kind,  and  seemed  to  be  in 
everyday  use,  and  not  brought  out  as  a  special 
honor  to  a  guest  of  high  degree,  for  such  I  nat- 
urally considered  myself  to  be  in  this  community 
of  negroes.  The  walls  I  found  to  be  built  of 
blocks  of  stone,  although  they  looked  as  if  their 
surface  was  continuous,  as  if  covered  with  smooth 
plaster,  or  hard  finish.  On  close  inspection  the 
joints  and  lines  of  juncture  could  be  discerned,  al- 
though the  separate  stones  were  so  cunningly 
ground  and  fitted  to  each  other,  that  the  lines  be- 
tween them  barely  showed.  These  lines  repre- 
sented extremely  thin  layers  of  some  very  finely 
grained  cement,  of  the  exact  color  of  the  stones, 
so  that  from  a  short  distance  away,  the  surface 
seemed  to  be  unbroken.  This  beautiful  work  was 
an  immense  surprise  to  me,  and  caused  me  to 
modify  my  opinions  of  the  character  and  nature  of 
these  people,  with  whom  fortune  had  brought  me 
into  such  close  contact.  Surely,  even  to  conceive 
of  such  work,  not  to  speak  of  its  execution,  these 
people  must  be  more  civilized  than  I  had  imagined. 
I  examined  the  blankets,  rugs  and  hammock,  and 
found  all  their  handiwork  of  the  same  perfect  and 


HOSPITALITY  39 

genuine  character.  There  were  no  loose  threads 
anywhere,  no  tags,  no  roughnesses,  no  sawlike 
edges,  no  projecting  lumps,  no  evidences  of  imper- 
fect threads,  and  the  harmonies  of  color  seemed 
to  me,  who  am  no  connoisseur  in  such  matters,  to 
be  admirable. 

As  I  was  completing  my  survey  I  heard  some- 
one say : 

"  Good  morning,  sir,"  from  outside  my  door, 
and  as  I  returned  the  salutation  and  stepped  around 
the  screen,  I  found  my  host  standing  there,  with 
a  broad  smile  upon  his  face  and  a  hearty  sympathy 
in  his  look,  as  he  inquired  how  I  had  passed  the 
night.  I  told  him  that  I  had  slept  like  a  top  and 
was  feeling  fresh  and  fit  for  anything  that  might 
be  in  store  for  me,  and  we  passed  along  the  same 
corridor  we  had  traversed  the  evening  before  and 
entered  again  the  main  room  of  the  house. 

He  place  a  chair  for  me  at  the  table,  and  then 
said: 

"  I  am  assuming,  sir,  that  you  are  hungry  after 
your  night's  rest." 

I  assured  him  that  I  was,  and  he  left  the  room 
for  a  moment,  returning  with  a  dish  of  fruit,  and 
a  plate  of  bread  with  butter.  Again  he  went  to 
the  rear  and  returned  with  a  pot  of  hot  coffee,  with 
a  jug  of  milk,  and  a  third  trip  brought  me  a  bowl 
of  sufiar  and  a  saucer  of  honey. 


40      THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

I  never  enjoyed  a  breakfast  more  in  my  life. 
The  coffee  was  delicious,  the  bread  and  butter 
equal  to  the  best  I  ever  tasted,  and  the  gentle 
courtesy  of  my  host  suggested  the  service  of  the 
best  waiter  I  had  ever  known.  I  afterwards  had 
reason  to  wonder  that,  even  for  a  moment,  I  had 
ever  thought  of  him  as  a  waiter  attending  to  my 
wants,  and  felt  much  ashamed  of  it  in  retrospect. 

"  We  have  all  had  our  first  meal,"  said  my  host, 
*'  which  is  always  a  simple  one  like  that  which 
you,  I  hope,  are  enjoying." 

I  assured  him  that  I  was. 

"  All  our  meals  are  simple,  and  we  seldom  take 
them  together.  We  have  no  family  meals,  as  you 
have.  Each  one  eats  when  he  is  hungry,  and  at 
no  other  time,  and  we  have  no  habit  of  meeting 
to  eat  together,  excepting  when  we  have  public 
gatherings,  at  which  the  meal  is  a  negligible  inci- 
dent, and  never  the  chief  occasion  of  the  meeting." 

"  Rather  an  unsocial  practice,"  I  remarked. 

"  Perhaps  so,  but  it  tends  to  prevent  gluttony." 


CHAPTER  IV 

INCREASING    BEWILDERMENT 

MY  breakfast  was  soon  finished,  and  we  pre- 
pared to  go  out.  I  got  my  hat,  and  with 
my  host,  bare-headed  as  usual,  started  I  knew 
not  whither.  He  turned  his  steps  toward  the  hills 
and  the  fringe  of  woods  crowning  them,  from 
which  I  had  emerged  on  the  previous  evening.  As 
we  walked  along  slowly  I  saw  my  guide,  the  ten 
year  old  lad,  playing  ball  with  a  lot  of  other  young- 
sters, and  evidently  having  a  hilarious  time. 

We  passed  along  in  silence  until  we  reached  the 
shade  on  the  brow  of  the  hill,  and  there  we  stopped 
and  the  negro  signed  to  me  to  be  seated.  He 
threw  himself  down  beside  me,  and  remained  for 
some  minutes  deep  in  thought,  I  meanwhile  won- 
dering after  the  cryptic  utterances  of  the  night  be- 
fore, what  could  be  coming.  At  length  he  spoke. 
"  I  thought  it  better  to  be  somewhat  retired 
during  our  preliminary  talk,  and  so  have  brought 
you  here.  You  are  not  at  all  prepared  for  what 
I  am  about  to  tell  you,  and  I  hardly  know  how  to 
begin." 

41 


42      THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

"  But,  first,  let  me  ask,"  I  said,  "  let  me  under- 
stand clearly  where  I  am  and  how  I  got  here,  and 
above  all,  how  I  can  get  home  again." 

"  I  have  already  told  you  that  you  are  in  Africa. 
How  you  reached  the  coast  I  am  not  just  now  pre- 
pared to  say.  Frankly,  I  do  not  know.  As  soon 
as  you  wandered  inland,  you  were  guided  and  di- 
rected to  this  spot  by  us,  chiefly  by  myself.  Mat- 
ters have  reached  such  a  pass  in  the  outer  world, 
especially  in  the  country  from  which  you  come,  that 
it  became  necessary  for  us  to  take  cognizance  of  it. 
More  of  that  later. 

"  You  are  now  about  one  hundred  miles  from  the 
coast,  the  western  coast  of  Africa,  and  consider- 
ably south  of  the  equator.  We  are  in  the  month 
of  January  and  the  days  are  growing  shorter. 
There  are  no  men  of  your  race  on  this  continent. 
You  will  remain  with  us  about  a  week,  and  then 
I  will  take  you  back  to  your  own  land,  to  act, 
I  hope,  as  a  messenger  of  peace  between  your  peo- 
ple and  ours." 

"  A  messenger  of  peace !  "  I  exclaimed. 

"  Yes.     That  also  I  will  explain  later." 

"  But,  tell  me,  how  is  it  that  you,  belonging  to 
a  tribe  of  African  negroes,  speak  such  excellent 
English?     You  are  certainly  an  educated  man." 

At  this  remark  of  mine,  which  he  seemed  to  find 
very  amusing,  he  smiled  broadly. 


INCREASING  BEWILDERMENT     43 

"  We  all  speak  English,"  he  replied.  "  It  is 
our  native  tongue,  but  comparatively  few  can  speak 
ancient  English  with  fluency  and  freedom.  I  am 
one  of  them,  because  my  special  duties  require  it, 
and  I  have  taught  it  to  my  son,  that  he  may  be 
prepared  to  succeed  me." 

"  Ancient  English !  "  I  exclaimed.  "  Why  you 
are  talking  with  me  in  my  own  language.  Old 
English  is  something  very  different,  and  I  know 
nothing  about  it." 

Again  he  smiled.  "  What  year  do  you  sup- 
pose we  are  living  in?"  he  said,  with  a  curious 
quizzical  expression. 

"  Nineteen  hundred  and  ten,"  I  promptly  re- 
plied. 

"  You  are  far,  very  far,  out  of  the  way.  You 
are  a  survival  of  the  twentieth  century,  but  are 
now  conversing  with  a  man  of  the  fifty-first  century. 
To  be  exact,  this  year  is  the  year  5027  A.  D." 

It  is  difficult  to  describe  the  effect  this  announce- 
ment had  upon  me.  It  was  delivered  in  such  a 
solemn  and  matter-of-fact  manner,  that  I  was  fairly 
nonplused  how  to  take  it. 

My  first  thought  was  that  I  had  to  deal  with 
an  insane  man,  but  his  manner  was  so  calm  and 
collected,  and  his  entire  look  of  physical  and  mental 
health  so  marked  that  I  was  thrown  into  a  state 
of  the  greatest  perplexity.     Finally,  I  blurted  out: 


44      THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

"  Nonsense,  it  Is  impossible.     It  is  all  a  dream." 

"  It  is  not  a  dream,"  said  he. 

"  It  must  be  a  dream,"  I  replied.  "  The  idea 
of  my  living  3,000  years  is  preposterous.  I  have 
had  many  curious  dreams  in  my  life,  but  this  is 
surely  the  strangest  of  all." 

"  This  is  no  dream.  You  are  living  in  a  dif- 
ferent world.  Much  has  happened  in  the  last 
3,000  years  since  you  left  your  own  land  for  this." 

"  I  should  say  so,  and  of  all  that  has  happened, 
this  is  the  most  absurd.  I  have  often  had  a  dream 
within  a  dream,  and  have  thought  to  myself  that 
I  was  dreaming,  but  this  goes  the  limit." 

"  Did  you  sleep  well  last  night?  " 

"  Yes,  slept  like  a  top." 

"  Did  you  ever  dream  of  going  to  sleep  and 
waking  up  again?  " 

"  N — no,  I  cannot  say  that  I  have." 

"  Of  course  not,  it  is  psychologically  impossible. 
Therefore  you  are  not  dreaming.  You  are  living 
in  a  real  world,  as  you  will  learn  before  long." 

"  But  it  is  not  possible,"  I  exclaimed,  with  some 
heat.  "  It  is  not  possible.  I  am  not  a  year  older 
than  I  was  when  my  senses  unaccountably  left  me, 
and  that  was  in  the  year  19 10.  Let  us  have  done 
with  this  ridiculous  palaver,  and  please  let  me  know 
how  I  can  get  home.  This  is  certainly  the  most 
extraordinary  experience  man  ever  had.     I  shall 


INCREASING  BEWILDERMENT     45 

have  a  story  to  tell  when  I  return." 

"  So  you  will,  and  a  true  one.  Before  you 
leave  us  you  will  know  that  it  is  a  true  one.  We 
shall  not  keep  you  long,  and  you  will  understand 
how  this  experience,  which  seems  to  you  to  tran- 
scend all  that  is  possible,  has  come  about.  It  will 
all  be  explained  to  your  satisfaction.  Meanwhile 
you  have  only  to  submit  yourself  to  the  inevitable 
and  allow  me  for  a  few  days  to  be  your  friend  and 
counselor,  and  I  hope  that  the  interchange  of  ideas 
may  be  of  mutual  advantage,  although  we  never 
must  expect  too  much  from  the  representatives  of 
the  inferior  races." 

"  Inferior  races,"  I  indignantly  responded; 
"  what  do  you  mean  by  that?  " 

"  Calm  yourself,  my  friend;  your  surprise  is 
natural,  but  the  evolution  of  mankind  has  con- 
tinued during  the  past  thirty  centuries,  and  the  time 
of  the  negro  came  many  hundreds  of  years  ago. 
At  the  present  time  your  race,  the  white  race, 
stands  at  the  bottom  of  the  scale." 

"  An  inferior  race !  The  whites  at  the  bottom 
of  the  scale!  Do  you  mean  to  say  that  you 
negroes  are  more  civilized  than  white  men,  and 
especially  than  Europeans  and  Americans?" 

"  There  are  no  longer  any  white  men  in  Eu- 
rope," said  my  host,  "  but  I  had  better  begin  at 
the  beginning  and  give  you  some  idea  of  what  has 


46      THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

occurred  in  the  world  since  your  time." 

"  Since  my  time,"  said  I.  "  My  time  is  now, 
right  now  and  here.  Do  you  mean  to  tell  me  that 
you  are  a  more  civilized  person  than  I  am,  that 
you  belong  to  a  superior  race,  and  all  that  fol-de- 
rol— " 

"  Yes,  I  mean  that.  Moreover,  as  I  shall  have 
no  difficulty  at  all  in  demonstrating  to  you  before 
you  leave  us,  your  race  is  so  far  inferior  that,  as 
you  will  soon  realize,  your  mental  powers  are 
probably  not  sufficient  to  enable  you  to  under- 
stand all  that  I  shall  tell  you  and  show  you,  al- 
though I  shall  try,  as  a  matter  of  course,  to  accom- 
modate myself,  so  far  as  I  can,  to  your  capacity. 
If  anything  is  obscure,  do  not  hesitate  to  interrupt 
me  with  questions.  I  am  above  all  anxious  to  have 
you  understand  the  relations  between  your  race 
and  mine,  for  just  at  this  moment  they  are  rather 
strained,  and  although  we  hope  for  the  best,  we 
are  fearful  of  the  consequences, —  not  for  our- 
selves, you  understand,  but  for  you.  You  have, 
as  a  race,  neither  the  ability  nor  the  means  to  harm 
us,  but  we  are  a  peaceable  folk,  deprecating  all 
violent  measures,  and  resorting  to  them  only  when 
they  alone  are  available." 

Now  I  began  to  be  convinced  that  the  negro 
was  insane,  and  I  quietly  felt  for  my  revolver,  to 
see  if  it  were  handy  and  if  it  were  loaded.     He 


INCREASING  BEWILDERMENT     47 

observed  my  action,  and  remarked  dryly: 

"  Have  no  fear  of  me.  Your  weapon  is  use- 
less, in  any  event,  as  I  will  show  you  before  the  day 
is  out.     Are  you  a  good  shot  with  the  revolver?  " 

"  Pretty  fair,"  I  replied. 

"  Very  well,  I  will  let  you  test  it  soon.  But  we 
must  get  on.  This  talk  is  profitless.  I  must  give 
you  an  inkling  of  what  has  been  happening  in 
the  world.  I  cannot  enter  into  small  details  of 
general  history,  for  I  have  made  no  special  study 
of  that  subject,  but  we  have  good  historians,  not- 
ably our  librarian,  and  he  will  doubtless  help  you 
to  hunt  up  anything  you  may  wish  to  know  about 
the  past,  when  we  visit  him  in  the  library  —  that 
large  white  building  yonder,"  and  he  pointed  to  the 
edifice  I  had  noticed  particularly  on  the  previous 
evening  when  I  caught  my  first  glimpse  of  the  val- 
ley. 

"  But  I  know  the  history  of  my  own  people,  our 
great  men,  our  early  struggles,  our  world-chang- 
ing discoveries,  and  our  gradual  development  un- 
til we  arrived  at  our  present  dominant  position." 

Here  he  ceased  speaking  for  a  moment,  rose  to 
a  standing  position,  and  extended  his  arm  toward 
the  group  of  ball-players  I  had  noticed  as  we  came 
along.  They  evidently  saw  him  rise,  and  pres- 
ently one  of  them,  who  proved  to  be  his  son,  sep- 
arated himself  from  the  others  and  stood  apart. 


48      THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

The  negro  made  signs  with  his  hands  and  arms, 
which  were  answered  by  the  boy,  and  shortly  he 
ran  back  to  the  house,  and  the  negro  seated  himself 
again  on  the  ground  in  silence. 


CHAPTER  V 

A    REMARKABLE    STORY 

THE  boy  soon  reappeared  running  out  from 
behind  the  house,  and  started  toward  us, 
bringing  something  that  looked  like  a  table  top  in 
his  hand.  It  did  not  take  him  long,  with  his  nim- 
ble trot,  to  reach  us,  and  he  handed  over  his  burden 
to  his  father,  and  hurried  away  to  his  games. 

He  had  brought  along  what  appeared  to  be  a 
flat,  thin  board,  dark  brown  in  color,  and  circular 
in  form,  about  two  feet  in  diameter,  and  possibly 
a  thirty-second  of  an  inch  thick.  The  negro  laid 
it  upon  the  grass  beside  him,  and  proceeded  with 
his  talk,  merely  remarking  oft-hand  that  he  should 
need  it  by  and  by  to  illustrate  some  point  or  other 
which  I  might  otherwise  find  difficulty  in  accepting 
upon  his  bare  statement,  for,  as  he  said  with  a 
smile,  "  You  belong  to  an  incredulous  race.  That 
is  one  thing  that  has  retarded  your  advancement. 
The  white  people  know  what  they  think  they  have 
proved,  we  prove  what  we  know.  You  put  the 
proof  before  conviction.  We  start  with  convic- 
tion and  end  with  proof.     And  this  reversal  of 

49 


50      THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

your  methods  has  always  seemed  to  you  to  be 
nonsense,  and  always  will,  and  that  has  made  you 
slow  and  stupid.  It  has  been  your  undoing  in  the 
past,  and  always  will  be  in  the  future,  by  the  nat- 
ural organic  limitations  of  your  minds.  However, 
that  is  merely  by  the  way,  I  must  get  on." 

Here  I  could  not  help  interrupting:  "  Do  you 
mean  to  say  that  the  real  way  to  acquire  knowledge 
is  to  believe  first  and  then  search  for  proof  ?  That 
seems  very  absurd  to  me." 

"  Just  as  I  said.  You  cannot  understand.  We 
have  not  time  for  argument  as  to  that.  Indeed 
I  do  not  know  that  argument  with  you  or  one  of 
your  race  would  be  worth  while,  but  before  we 
pass  on  to  other  and  more  important  subjects,  I 
will  give  you  an  illustration  of  the  fact  that  you 
find  yourselves  compelled  by  the  very  nature  of 
things,  to  adopt  as  the  foundation  of  all  your 
science,  so-called,  the  same  principle  that  we  do. 
You  rest  all  your  knowledge  upon  the  conviction 
that  there  is  an  external  world,  and  yet  your  phil- 
osophers and  wise  men  all  agree  that  there  is  no 
way  of  proving  it,  that  you  never  have  proved  it, 
and  never  can.  In  that  case  you  start  with  belief, 
and  search  afterwards  for  proof,  which  you  have 
not  yet  found.     But  now  let  us  go  on. 

"  You  will  have  understood  by  this  time  that  we 
consider  the  whites  to  belong  to  an  inferior  race. 


A  REMARKABLE  STORY  51 

There  can  be  no  doubt  about  it  whatever,  although 
they  still  retain  toward  other  races  that  supercili- 
ous air  which  seems  to  be  a  part  of  their  nature. 
This  is  one  of  the  characteristic  qualities  of  the 
race  which  has  always  operated  to  prevent  its  ad- 
vancement beyond  a  certain  point.  When  they 
have  reached  a  certain  height  of  civilization  and 
progress  they  do  not  stop  and  mark  time,  as  it 
were,  until  they  can  get  their  breath  for  a  further 
advance,  but  their  civilized  society  falls  to  pieces, 
and  they  relapse  into  what  is  almost  barbarism, 
so  that  when  a  new  start  is  made  on  an  impulse  or 
stimulus  which  always  comes  from  outside,  they 
have  to  develop  slowly  again  to  about  the  same 
degree  of  civilization,  they  attained  before,  or 
perhaps  a  little  higher.  Their  history  consists  of 
a  perpetual  series  of  rises  and  falls,  a  monotonous 
succession  of  periods  of  civilization  and  savagery. 
The  essential  defect  of  the  white  race,  which 
brings  about  these  deplorable  relapses,  when  so 
much  of  what  they  had  gained  is  lost,  is  the  very 
quality  upon  which  they  have  always  taken  great 
pride,  namely,  the  instinct  for  domination.  They 
have  always  insisted  that  their  civilization  was  the 
only  true  civilization,  their  methods  the  only  true 
methods,  their  science  the  only  true  science,  their 
religions  th^  only  true  religions  (although  they 
were  never  able  to  agree  on  any  one)  and  that  it 


52      THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

was  their  privilege  and  their  duty  to  impose  their 
fashions  of  every  sort  upon  the  other  races  of  the 
globe.  They  were  destined  by  their  physical, 
mental  and  moral  superiority  to  be  the  masters  and 
teachers  of  the  rest  of  the  world,  and  so  they  set 
about  it.  In  every  era  of  the  world's  history,  this 
domineering  instinct  has  been  the  cause  of  their 
downfall.  There  has  been  one  such  lapse  into  bar- 
barism since  the  twentieth  century,  and  they  are 
now  again  upon  the  rising  tide  and  have  reached 
just  about  the  stage  of  their  kind  of  civilization 
which  they  had  attained  early  in  the  twentieth 
century.  When  I  take  you  back  to  your  own  peo- 
ple, you  will  not  see  so  very  much  difference  In  liv- 
ing conditions,  aside  from  certain  changes  in  the 
physical  configuration  of  the  land,  and  the  fact 
that  you  will  find  yourself  thrown  among  personal 
strangers,  whose  language  you  may  at  first  find 
it  a  little  difficult  to  understand. 

"  In  contrast  with  your  people,  the  other  races 
of  the  world  have  not  had  these  ups  and  downs. 
They  have  lacked  or  suppressed  this  colonizing 
tendency,  and  have  advanced  step  by  step,  re- 
taining after  each  advance  all  or  nearly  all  that 
had  been  gained,  and  although  they  have  some- 
times halted  for  hundreds  of  years,  they  have  never 
retrogressed  In  any  marked  degree,  but  when 
aroused  by  a  new  stimulus,  they  have  taken  up  their 


A  REMARKABLE  STORY  53 

onward  march  from  a  point  already  gained  by 
previous  generations.  This  steady,  though  grad- 
ual, progress  of  the  races  other  than  white,  going 
on  beside  the  frequent  and  regular  relapses  of  the 
whites,  due  as  I  have  said  to  their  absolute  inabil- 
ity to  progress  beyond  a  certain  point  without  go- 
ing backward,  has  had  already  its  inevitable  re- 
sult, viz, :  the  white  race  has  been  left  far  behind. 
They  were  like  precocious  children,  and  for  hun- 
dreds of  years  were  dominant  in  the  world,  but 
they  were  gradually  passed  by  the  yellow  races, 
and  finally  by  the  black  ones.  The  white  race, 
though  as  full  of  conceit  as  ever,  now  stands  at  the 
bottom,  and  the  negroes  have  come  to  their  own, 
as  the  leading  race.  If  you  are  not  tired  of  listen- 
ing, I  will  now  proceed  to  explain  to  you  how  this 
has  come  about,  and  give  you  some  idea  of  what 
has  happened  in  the  world  within  the  past  three 
thousand  years.  Or  shall  we  leave  it  until  an- 
other time?  " 

"  No,  no,  go  on,"  I  exclaimed.  "  I  find  it  ex- 
tremely interesting,  although,  of  course,  I  cannot 
subscribe  to  your  opinion  of  the  race  to  which  I  be- 
long." 

"  You  must  know  then  that  the  negro  race  re- 
mained in  much  the  situation  with  which  you  were 
familiar  well  into  the  twenty-first  century,  but  in 
the  year  2067  ^^'^s  born  our  first  great  man,  that 


54      THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

is  to  say,  the  first  man  of  the  negro  race  who  could 
rank  with  the  greatest  men  in  the  histor)-^  of  the 
world,  one  of  the  very  few  who  stand  in  the  first 
rank  and  are  looked  upon  as  really  great  geniuses. 
He  was  born  on  a  small  farm  in  the  '  black  belt ' 
(so  called  at  the  time)  in  the  State  of  Georgia, 
one  of  the  United  States  of  America,  and  his  name, 
after  the  grandiloquent  style  of  our  race  which 
was  then  in  its  childhood,  was  George  Washington 
Napoleon  Bonaparte  Andrews.  When  he  became 
a  man,  however,  he  abandoned  the  superfluous 
names  by  which  he  had  been  christened,  and  called 
himself  George  Andrews,  and  by  that  name  his 
memory  has  been  handed  down  to  us." 

*'  Excuse  me  for  interrupting  you  for  one  mo- 
ment," I  said,  "  but  I  notice  that  you  used  the 
term  '  christened,'  and  that  your  dates  seem  to  be 
based  upon  the  Christian  era.  Is  Christianity 
your  religion?  " 

"  Yes,"  he  said,  "  we  are  Christians.  We 
have  retained  the  religion  and  the  language  of 
that  portion  of  the  white  race  among  whom  we 
spent  the  years  of  our  tutelage.  We  all  aim  to 
lead  true  Christian  lives,  and  I  am  confident  that 
you  will  recognize  the  fact  that  we  apply  the  teach- 
ing of  Jesus  in  our  daily  lives  as  your  race  was 
never  able  to  do.  The  whites  never  had  more  than 
a  thin  veneer  of  Christianity.     They  were  always 


A  REMARKABLE  STORY  55 

too  bloodthirsty  and  bellicose,  too  domineering  and 
selfish  and  I  may  add,  always  will  be,  for  they  are 
racially  incapable  of  seeing  the  folly  of  it.  The 
language  we  have  also  retained,  considerably  modi- 
fied, It  is  true,  so  that  you  will  find  you  cannot 
understand  it,  but  our  scholars  all  speak  and  under- 
stand ancient  English.  I,  who  am  not  a  scholar, 
also  understand  old  English,  because  it  is  necessary 
for  my  work  in  life.  I  am  an  '  outlooker  '  as  we 
call  it.  My  duties  are  to  keep  watch  on  the  fron- 
tier, and  to  make  occasional  excursions  into  foreign 
countries  and  ascertain  their  sentiments  and  plans 
toward  ourselves,  so  that  we  may  be  able  to  antici- 
pate and  protect  ourselves  against  any  hostile  move 
on  their  part,  for  now  and  then,  at  long  intervals, 
their  zeal  for  proselyting,  or  eagerness  to  extend 
their  commerce,  or  some  other  deviltry  inherent  in 
the  race,  leads  them  to  assault  our  frontier.  They 
always  fail  in  their  expeditions,  and  always  must 
fail.  They  are  too  ignorant  and  feeble  to  carry 
out  their  designs,  but,  notwithstanding  the  great 
losses  they  suffer,  and  the  sanguinary  lessons  we 
are  compelled  to  give  them,  the  deterrent  effect  of 
a  failure  seems  to  wear  away  after  a  few  hundred 
years  and  they  make  another  effort.  Unfortu- 
nately, as  we  have  knowledge,  they  are  just  on  the 
eve  of  another  expedition  of  conquest,  to  force  us 
to  trade  with  them,  but,  of  course,  it  will  be  frus- 


S6      THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

trated  with  the  greatest  ease,  though  probably  with 
terrible  loss  of  men  and  money  to  the  whites.  For 
us,  as  you  may  see,  it  is  a  bagatelle,  annoying,  but 
not  serious.  Their  preparations,  I  understand, 
are  already  well  under  way,  and  I  shall  be  com- 
pelled in  a  day  or  two  to  visit  your  country,  or  at 
least  what  was  your  country,  in  order  to  learn  just 
what  we  shall  have  to  meet,  and  when  the  move- 
ment of  their  army  and  navy  begins.  If  you  wish 
I  will  take  you  with  me.  In  fact,  I  think  it  will 
be  better  for  you  to  accompany  me  than  to  remain 
here,  and  if  you  wish  to  stay  among  your  people,  I 
will  return  alone." 

'*  I  shall  be  glad  to  accompany  you  and  solve 
this  mystery  in  which  I  seem  to  be  more  and  more 
deeply  involved.  How  can  you  expect  me  to 
believe  all  you  have  been  telling  me,  or  to  acquiesce 
in  your  estimate  of  me  and  my  countrymen?  " 

"  I  do  not  expect  it  at  the  present  moment,  but 
you  will  believe  me  before  you  leave  this  spot. 
But  we  lose  time  by  these  digressions,  and  I  must 
get  on  more  rapidly  with  my  brief  historical  re- 
view and  give  you  a  practical  demonstration  of 
our  advanced  civilization.  In  the  year  2067,  then, 
George  Andrews  was  born,  and  lived  and  worked 
with  his  father,  a  small  farmer,  until  he  was  of 
age,  when  he  went  out  into  the  world  to  shift  for 
himself.     He  was  an  industrious,  sober,  ingenious 


A  REMARKABLE  STORY  57 

and  capable  man  and  soon  found  employment  in 
a  large  manufactory  of  electrical  appliances  con- 
ducted by  a  negro  corporation.  Here  he  worked 
for  many  years,  gradually  rising  to  the  position  of 
foreman  and  Assistant  Manager.  During  this 
time  he  had  been  noticed  as  a  reticent,  solitary 
man,  who  spent  his  leisure  time  at  home,  mostly 
in  a  workroom  he  had  fitted  up  for  himself,  into 
which  no  one  else  was  ever  allowed  to  enter.  In 
2097,  when  he  was  thirty  years  of  age  he  surprised 
everyone  in  the  factory  and  all  his  friends  and 
acquaintances  by  insisting  on  throwing  up  his  po- 
sition, and  leaving  the  town,  which  was  practically 
a  town  of  negroes,  and  where  he  was  looked  upon 
as  one  of  the  leading  men.  He  disappeared,  and 
it  was  not  known  what  had  become  of  him  for 
nearly  two  years,  when  an  intimate  friend  re- 
ceived a  letter  from  him  dated  at  Washington,  the 
capital  of  the  nation,  and  giving  some  account  of 
his  doings  since  dropping  out  of  sight.  He  had 
withdrawn  into  the  depths  of  an  extensive  piece 
of  woodland,  where  he  built  a  hut,  laid  in  a  stock 
of  provisions  and  a  few  tools,  and  worked  alone 
trying  to  perfect  an  invention  based  upon  an  ac- 
cidental discovery  of  his,  made  in  the  course  of  his 
regular  work  at  the  factory.  This  discovery  was 
of  such  a  revolutionary  nature  and  so  tremendous 
in  its  possible  development  that  he  did  not  dare 


58      THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

to  breathe  a  word  about  it  to  anyone  until  he  had 
tested  it  fully,  for  fear  that  he  should  be  looked 
upon  as  insane,  and  possibly  confined  for  life.  His 
estimate  of  the  discovery  proved  to  be  correct,  his 
invention  for  its  utilization  had  been  satisfactorily 
completed,  and  he  was  now  in  Washington  to  bring 
the  results  of  his  labor  to  the  notice  of  the  Federal 
Government.  He  was  expecting  to  offer  the  in- 
vention to  the  government,  with  no  other  recom- 
pense than  the  fame  that  he  knew  would  attach  to 
his  name  and  the  moderate  pecuniary  reward  that 
he  was  confident  would  be  voted  by  Congress  as 
an  evidence  of  the  gratitude  of  the  nation  for  so 
great  a  boon, 

"  Judge  of  his  surprise  when  every  official,  from 
the  highest  to  the  lowest  in  the  government  service, 
not  only  absolutely  refused  to  consider  the  matter 
at  all,  but  ejected  him,  sometimes  with  violence, 
from  the  public  buildings,  and  finally  issued  orders 
that  this  "  crazy  nigger  Andrews  "  should  not  be 
allowed  to  pass  the  outside  door.  Knowing  what 
he  did  and  what  he  had  discovered,  these  rebuffs 
almost  made  him  crazy  in  reality,  and  it  was  many 
days  before  his  mind  recovered  its  balance.  Then 
and  there  he  resolved  to  cast  his  lot,  for  the  rest 
of  his  life,  with  his  own  race,  and  abjure  the  white 
race  forever.  So  he  left  Washington  and  never 
returned,  but  the  very  night  he  departed  he  sent 


A  REMARKABLE  STORY  59 

letters  to  the  President  and  members  of  the 
Cabinet,  as  well  as  to  the  most  prominent  depart- 
ment heads  and  members  of  Congress,  whom  he 
had  tried  to  interest  in  his  schemes,  and  every  let- 
ter was  the  same,  containing  on  a  single  sheet  these 
words  and  nothing  more  :  '  Woe  to  the  Whites  !  ' 
"  It  may  be  imagined  that  some  excitement  fol- 
lowed the  receipt  of  these  letters,  for  they  were 
believed  to  presage  a  negro  insurrection.  They 
were  easily  traced  to  Andrews,  but  he  had  disap- 
peared and  no  white  man  ever  saw  him  again  or 
ever  had  any  suspicion  of  his  whereabouts,  ex- 
cepting that  now  and  then  a  vague  rumor  would 
float  about  among  them  that  he  was  still  living,  and 
busily  engaged  in  some  sort  of  missionary  work 
among  his  own  people.  Nothing  happened  to 
disturb  their  serenity,  and  in  a  year  or  two  he  and 
his  vagaries  were  practically  forgotten." 


CHAPTER  VI 

PERPETUAL   MOTION 

""\7^  OU  are  doubtless  wondering  what  this 
X  great  discovery  could  have  been,  which  one 
man  considered  to  be  epoch-making,  and  others,  in 
fact  the  majority,  looked  upon  as  the  maunderings 
of  a  lunatic  or  a  fool.  You  will  understand  the 
mental  attitude  of  both,  when  I  tell  you  what  it 
was.  The  discovery,  which,  as  I  have  said,  was 
an  accident,  was  '  A  means  of  insulation  against 
the  magnet.'  More  or  less  complete  electrical 
insulation  had  been  attained  for  many  years,  but 
the  magnetic  force  had  never  been  insulated.  This 
possibility  of  insulating  the  magnet  immediately 
suggested  to  x^ndrews  the  construction  of  a  rotary 
engine,  with  the  rapid  insulation  and  release  of 
the  magnetic  force  as  the  motive  power,  thus  do- 
ing away  at  one  stroke  with  the  necessity  of  using 
heat  or  combustion  in  any  form.  It  was  to  in- 
vent this  engine  that  he  withdrew  himself  for  a 
time  from  the  society  of  his  fellow  men,  and  in 
the  solitude  of  that  forest  he  accomplished  his 
object.     At  the  time  of  his  attempt  to  interest 

60 


PERPETUAL  MOTION  6i 

the  authorities  at  Washington  in  his  projects,  there- 
fore, he  had  a  practicable,  powerful  engine,  suit- 
able for  any  kind  of  mechanical  work,  which  would 
run  indefinitely,  without  waste  and  without  con- 
sumption of  any  form  of  energy  excepting  that  of 
the  magnet.  In  other  words  he  had  practically 
solved  the  old  problem  of  perpetual  motion. 

"  It  is  difficult  to  understand  how  highly  trained 
scientific  men  could  have  rejected  with  contempt 
and  without  examination  the  claims  of  anyone  that 
he  had  discovered  a  method  of  magnetic  insulation, 
for  a  demonstration  would  have  taken  but  a  mo- 
ment and  it  had  never  been  proved  to  be  impos- 
sible. So  the  natural  inference  is,  although  from 
the  remoteness  of  the  event  we  are  ignorant  of 
the  facts,  that  Andrews,  filled  with  enthusiasm  over 
his  engine,  and  absorbed  in  contemplation  of  its 
vast  possibihties,  presented  himself  as  the  inventor 
of  '  perpetual  motion,'  which  had  long  been  known 
to  be  a  delusion  and  an  impossibility,  so  that  scien- 
tific men  had  for  many  years  treated  all  claims  of 
the  sort  with  derisive  contempt.  However  that 
may  have  been,  the  facts  were  as  I  have  stated. 
Andrews  washed  his  hands  of  the  white  race  for- 
ever, and  would  have  nothing  to  do  with  them 
thereafter. 

"  He  now  began  to  devote  himself  entirely  to 
the  interests  of  his  own  people.     The  negroes  in 


62      THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

the  United  States  had  already  taken  a  considerable 
part  in  the  industrial  development  of  the  coun- 
try, and  there  were  many  large  manufacturers  and 
industrial  corporations  among  them,  engaged  in 
active  competition  with  the  whites,  although  as 
their  rivalry  began  to  be  felt  in  commercial  circles, 
every  conceivable  method  had  been  adopted  by 
the  whites,  who  were  in  the  majority,  to  hamper 
them  in  their  work  and  restrict  their  activities.  It 
was  among  a  dissatisfied  and  rebellious  people, 
therefore,  that  Andrews  began  his  work.  He 
went  about  among  them,  explaining  the  treatment 
he  had  received  at  Washington,  and  urging  them 
to  cling  together  as  a  race,  devoted  to  each  other 
and  leagued  against  the  whites.  He  showed 
them  how  they  could  obtain  a  clear  superiority, 
by  the  use  of  his  engines,  from  which  they  could 
obtain  power  practically  without  cost,  and  grad- 
ually introduced  them  in  all  the  factories  where 
negroes  only  constituted  the  managing  and  work- 
ing force.  It  was  a  work  of  years,  for  it  had  to 
be  done  secretly,  but  by  the  time  he  had  attained 
his  fiftieth  year,  he  had  the  entire  negro  popula- 
tion of  the  country  in  a  powerful  and  exclusive 
league  against  the  whites,  and  he  had  done  the 
work  so  shrewdly  and  cautiously  that  the  fact  was 
never  suspected  by  the  rival  race. 

"  Andrews  had  every  negro  pledged  to  secrecy, 


PERPETUAL  MOTION  63 

had  his  engines  installed  in  all  negro  establish- 
ments, and  had  them  everywhere  placed  in  secret 
locations,  inaccessible  excepting  to  the  engineers 
and  managers,  so  that  when  white  men  alarmed  by 
the  increasing  and  relentless  competition  of  negro 
manufacturers,  obtained  access  to  the  plants  they 
were  never  able  to  discover  the  source  of  the 
power  that  was  used.  Every  factory  had  its 
chimney,  as  of  old,  and  dummy  furnaces  in  which 
fuel  was  occasionally  burned,  so  as  to  emit  a  little 
smoke  and  disarm  suspicion.  And  so  matters  went 
on  for  some  years. 

"  I  cannot  enter  into  further  details  for  lack  of 
time,  but  at  length  the  competition  became  so 
severe  and  the  undercutting  of  prices  by  the  negro 
manufacturers  so  destructive  to  the  industries  of 
the  whites,  that  the  latter  were  reduced  to  adopt 
extreme  measures  in  defense,  and  after  various 
things  had  been  tried  in  vain,  like  discriminating 
taxation,  and  other  unconstitutional  methods,  it 
was  finally  determined  that  a  negro  state  should  be 
created,  and  all  the  negro  population  of  the  United 
States  segregated  there  and  left,  as  it  was  con- 
temptuously said  at  the  time,  '  to  stew  in  their  own 
juice.'  This  was  finally  accomplished,  exchanges 
of  property  were  made,  immense  financial  compli- 
cations adjusted,  white  men  moved  out,  negroes 
moved  in,  and  the  United  States  was  composed  of 


64      THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

a  large  body  of  States  entirely  occupied  by  whites, 
and  one  enormous  State,  or  nation  with  nearly 
20,000,000  of  inhabitants,  wholly  composed  of 
negroes.  As  you  may  readily  Imagine,  this  whole- 
sale transfer  of  population  and  of  business  Inter- 
ests was  not  carried  through  without  great  fric- 
tion and  many  bloody  conflicts,  but  It  was  com- 
pleted, and  both  peoples  settled  down  to  work  out 
their  own  destiny.  During  this  process,  which 
transformed  the  whole  face  of  the  country,  the 
negroes  succeeded,  under  the  leadership  of  An- 
drews, who  was  now  nearly  seventy  years  old,  in 
maintaining  their  secret  compact,  and  when  the 
whites  eagerly  took  possession  of  the  dismantled 
negro  factories  and  searched  them  from  top  to 
bottom  for  an  explanation  of  their  industrial  su- 
periority, they  found  not  a  trace  of  Andrews'  mys- 
terious engines.  They  had  all  either  been  re- 
moved to  the  new  abode  or  had  been  so  utterly 
destroyed,  that  any  attempt  at  reconstruction  must 
have  been  futile.  And  so  the  whites  learned 
nothing  and  for  the  first  time  In  their  progress  as 
world-beaters,  found  themselves  baffled  and  dis- 
concerted by  the  despised  negro. 

"  Soon  after  this  separation  of  the  races  An- 
drews died,  at  the  ripe  age  of  81,  bequeathing  to 
posterity  the  inestimable  boon  of  his  great  Inven- 
tion and  the  abiding  sense  that  the  unbroken  soli- 


PERPETUAL  MOTION  6s 

darity  of  the  negro  race  must  be  inviolably  main- 
tained if  they  hoped  to  retain  for  themselves  and 
their  successors  the  advanced  position  they  had 
already  attained. 

"  He  was  our  first  man  of  commanding  genius, 
both  as  an  inventor  and  an  organizer  and  ex- 
ecutive, and  we  all  look  back  to  him  as  our  Moses, 
who  delivered  his  race  from  bondage.  Other  men 
there  had  been,  in  the  mists  of  antiquity,  who  had 
done  their  part  in  preparing  their  countrymen  to 
take  advantage  of  the  great  opportunity  that  came 
to  them  through  Andrews,  men  who  had  already 
aided  in  the  industrial  development  of  the  race, 
but  their  merits  were  so  overshadowed  by  the 
genius  of  Andrews  that  the  accounts  of  their  lives 
seem  almost  mythical.  One  such  man  I  remember 
was  named  Bookerty,  an  odd  enough  one  for  a 
negro.     He  was  one  of  the  first." 

"  You  mean  Washington  —  Booker  T.  Wash- 
ington," I  said  with  some  heat.  "  Why,  he  is 
living  now.     I  have  seen  him  myself." 

"  No,  my  friend,  you  are  mistaken.  He  lived, 
if  he  lived  at  all,  long  before  Andrews.  You 
never  saw  either  of  them,  and  never  will,  for  they 
have  both  been  dead  for  about  3,000  years." 

I  subsided.  It  was  of  no  use  to  argue  with  this 
curious,  cool,  apparently  level-headed  negro,  and 
so  I  gave  it  up  and  he  went  on. 


66      THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

*'  After  the  formation  of  our  negro  State  mat- 
ters continued  to  go  from  bad  to  worse.  Causes 
of  friction  were  numerous  enough  to  keep  us  con- 
stantly in  hot  water.  Many  years  elapsed  before 
we  discovered  and  gradually  eliminated  one  of 
these  causes,  one  of  the  most  potent  ones,  namely: 
the  infusion  of  white  blood  with  which  we  were 
cursed.  During  the  centuries  when  we  lived  in 
close  association  with  the  whites  there  had  been 
more  or  less  amalgamation  of  the  races,  and  when 
the  great  separation  took  place  there  were  many 
persons  with  white  blood  in  their  veins  who  cast  in 
their  lot  with  us  —  were  forced.  In  fact,  to  do  so, 
many  of  them  much  against  their  will.  It  dawned 
upon  us  very  gradually  that  most  of  the  criminality 
among  our  people  was  contributed  by  these  negroes 
of  mixed  blood,  and  finally  it  was  fairly  proved 
by  the  researches  of  a  distinguished  physician,  one 
King,  Dr.  Samuel  King,  that  criminal  tendencies 
in  our  population  were  not  only  confined  almost 
entirely  to  those  of  mixed  blood,  but  by  tracing  the 
ancestry  of  hundreds  of  them  with  the  most  minute 
particularity  he  demonstrated  beyond  a  shadow  of 
a  doubt  that  the  blood  of  the  white  and  not  of 
the  black  was  to  blame.  As  soon  as  we  were  sat- 
isfied of  this,  vigorous  measures  were  adopted  to 
rid  ourselves  of  this  contaminating  Influence  and 
by  discouraging  marriages  among  them,  and,  it 


PERPETUAL  MOTION  67 

must  be  confessed,  by  even  harsher  methods,  the 
aim  of  our  legislators  was  accomplished  after  a 
term  of  years  and  we  became  a  homogeneous  na- 
tion, of  pure  negro  blood,  with  not  a  trace  of  the 
hated  white  anywhere  in  the  nation. 

"  But  by  this  time  we  began  to  realize  that  we 
should  hav^e  to  fight  for  existence.  The  whites, 
by  constant  aggressions,  indicated  very  plainly  that 
segregation  was  not  sufficient,  but  that  they  were 
bent  on  extermination.  Only  one  thing  seemed 
to  work  for  a  time  in  our  favor,  and  that  was  the 
desire  of  the  whites  to  obtain  possession  of  the 
secret  of  which  they  knew  we  were  masters,  before 
they  did  away  with  us.  They  did  not  wish  it  to 
die  with  us,  and  so  long  as  we  were  still  in  a  po- 
sition to  utilize  it  against  them,  we  had  an  ad- 
vantage that  they  found  it  difficult  to  contend 
against.  But  there  came  a  time  when  their  pas- 
sions could  no  longer  be  controlled,  and  a  slight 
pretext  sufficed  to  raise  the  cry  of  '  Down  with 
the  blacks.'  A  terrible  civil  war  ensued,  and  the 
consequences  were  the  most  momentous  in  the 
history  of  the  world.  Before  I  proceed  to  give 
you  a  brief  account  of  it,  I  must  relate  a  little 
about  the  changes  that  had  taken  place  in  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  whites." 

Here  he  paused  for  a  moment.  During  most 
of  the  previous  harangue,  although  it  became  so 


68      THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

fixed  in  my  memory  that  I  am  sure  I  have  writ- 
ten down  the  substance  of  it  correctly,  my  at- 
tention had  been  more  or  less  distracted  by  the 
scenes  that  unfolded  themselves  before  my  eyes. 
I  have  already  described  in  few  words  the  general 
character  of  the  landscape,  as  seen  from  the  spot 
where  we  were  located,  but  now,  for  an  hour  or 
more,  in  the  freshness  of  the  early  morning  and 
recovered  from  the  fatigue  of  the  previous  day, 
I  was  able  to  observe  it  more  in  detail.  The 
houses,  low  and  squat,  of  one  story,  were  scattered 
here  and  there,  in  no  apparent  order,  as  far  as 
the  vision  could  reach.  There  was  no  appear- 
ance of  crowding,  and  there  were  no  walls  or 
fences  separating  the  plots  from  each  other. 
Neither  did  there  appear  to  be  any  roads,  though 
here  and  there  an  indistinct  line  in  the  grassy  lawns 
showed  that  some  lines  of  communication  from 
house  to  house  were  more  frequently  used  than 
others.  Many  of  the  houses  were  colored,  not 
gayly  but  soberly,  showing  reddish,  bluish  or  yel- 
lowish tints  among  the  mass,  which  were  generally 
cream-colored  or  white.  The  effect  of  the  con- 
trasts of  color  was  never  glaring,  but  agreeable 
in  the  extreme.  In  the  distance  were  a  few  large 
buildings,  with  extensive  open  places  in  front, 
which  I  afterward  learned  were  public  buildings, 
a  large  library,  a  meeting  hall,  a  camera  (of  which 


PERPETUAL  MOTION  69 

more  will  be  said)  and  an  amusement  hall,  or 
theater.  Near  each  house,  at  the  side  or  rear,  was 
a  garden,  in  which  the  variety  of  form  and  color 
showed  that  vegetables  and  fruits  as  well  as  flow- 
ers were  cultivated.  The  people  in  sight  from 
where  we  were  seemed  all  to  be  busy,  though  I 
was  unable  as  a  rule  to  discover  what  they  were 
doing.  There  were  many  women  and  girls,  and 
a  few  boys,  at  work  in  the  gardens.  Half  a  dozen 
men  were  working  on  a  new  house  not  far  away, 
which  seemed  to  be  about  half  completed.  A  few 
men  were  at  work  in  the  open  air,  near  their  houses, 
artisans  it  seemed,  carpenters  or  wood-workers  of 
some  kind,  and  I  was  not  too  far  away  to  detect 
two  or  three  metal  workers,  for  I  could  see  the 
red  hot  sheets  and  rods  on  which  they  were  en- 
gaged, although  I  could  see  no  flame  or  smoke 
from  the  forges  where  they  were  heated.  There 
were  several  groups  of  boys  and  girls  running 
about  and  shouting,  playing  games  of  some  sort 
apparently,  vigorous,  healthy  and  full  of  animal 
spirits.  Here  and  there  scattered  amongst  the 
buildings  I  could  see  what  looked  like  large  arm 
chairs,  or  perhaps  I  should  say  bath-chairs,  for 
they  had  hoods  that  partly  concealed  them,  and 
they  were  fitted  with  a  kind  of  wheel  at  the  back, 
the  use  of  which  I  could  not  conceive.  The  whole 
impression  made  upon  me  was  one  of  peace  and 


70      THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

plenty.  Suddenly  I  saw  a  man  issue  from  a  house, 
go  out  of  my  sight  behind  one  of  the  chairs,  start 
the  wheel  going,  for  I  could  see  it  whirl,  and  to 
my  astonishment  the  thing  rose  almost  straight 
up  in  the  air  and  sped  away  to  the  north.  I  was 
so  dumbfounded,  that  I  gasped  for  breath.  My 
host,  who  had  been  watching  me  in  silence  for  sev- 
eral minutes,  quietly  remarked : 

"  An  air-car,  our  only  means  of  communication 
and  travel.  I  will  explain  it  presently,  when  I 
have  finished  this  historical  sketch,  which  is  a 
necessary  preliminary  to  the  revelations  I  have 
promised  you." 

With  a  sigh  I  resigned  myself  to  what  I  ex- 
pected would  be  another  interminable  sermon  on 
the  virtues  of  the  blacks,  but  he  fixed  my  attention 
from  the  start  by  giving  me  some  unexpected  in- 
formation about  my  own  country  and  people. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE    GREAT    CIVIL    WAR 

"  \  NDREWS  died  in  2148,  and  the  antag- 
jl\,  onism  of  the  races  culminated  about  a  hun- 
dred years  later  in  a  war  that  lasted  more  than 
two  years  before  it  ended  in  the  total  defeat  and 
humiliation  of  the  whites.  I  have  given  you  a 
short  account  of  the  development  of  the  negro  for 
the  previous  two  hundred  years,  and  now  we  come 
to  the  whites.  The  great  republic  of  the  West 
had  endured  more  than  a  hundred  years  before 
the  seeds  of  its  dissolution  were  planted.  This 
happened  in  your  own  time,  when  the  United  States 
became  possessed  of  colonies,  and  ruled  millions 
of  men  as  subjects  and  not  citizens.  There  were 
a  few  wise  men,  even  at  that  time,  who  heeded  the 
teaching  of  history  that  the  downfall  of  a  republic 
always  began  when  it  acquired  colonies  and  ruled 
over  subjects  who  were  allowed  no  share  in  the 
general  government,  but  were  looked  upon  as 
aliens  who  are  not  citizens  and  treated  as  such. 
No  republic  can  have  subjects  who  are  not  citizens 

71 


72      THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

and  endure.  And  so  the  change  in  the  great  white 
republic  set  in,  to  the  dismay  and  sorrow  of  the 
champions  of  freedom  throughout  the  world. 

"  But  I  must  pass  over  the  intervening  years 
with  the  briefest  possible  sketch.  Ever  since  the 
great  civil  war  there  had  been  a  perceptible  trend 
to  a  greater  centralization  of  power  in  the  Federal 
or  central  government  and  an  increasing  tendency 
toward  encroachment  upon  the  powers  of  the 
separate  States.  There  were  occasional  political 
convulsions  in  which  this  baleful  tendency  ap- 
peared to  meet  with  a  check,  but  its  course  was 
never  reversed  and  its  onward  sweep  was  on  the 
whole  a  steady  one.  It  acquired  some  degree  of 
authority  from  the  written  constitution  of  the  na- 
tion, in  which  the  framers,  in  their  anxiety  to 
provide  for  every  contingency  that  could  arise  had 
inserted  two  provisions,  which  colored  the  whole 
future  of  the  republic  and  as  gradually  interpreted 
and  amplified  by  the  courts,  were  finally  quoted 
in  justification  of  all  the  centralizing  legislation 
carried  through  by  those  who  called  themselves  the 
National  Party,  the  successor  of  the  former  Re- 
publican Party,  with  some  additions  from  the  party 
of  the  people,  who  still  called  themselves  Demo- 
crats. These  two  provisions  were  the  following, 
as  nearly  as  I  am  able  to  quote  them,  for  this  is 
pretty  ancient  history  and  I   am  not  much  of  a 


THE  GREAT  CIVIL  WAR  73 

scholar  in  such  matters. 

"  The  first  was  that  Congress  was  empowered 
to  pass  laws  '  for  the  general  welfare,'  and  the 
second  was  that  the  rights  not  specially  granted 
to  the  general  government  nor  forbidden  to  the 
States,  were  reserved  to  the  States  respectively, 
'  or  to  the  people.'  These  two  Constitutional 
provisions,  it  was  held  by  the  Nationalists,  virtu- 
ally did  away  with  state  lines  and  all  necessity  for 
state  governments  and  committed  the  entire  body  of 
legislation  to  Congress  and  the  people  as  a  whole, 
voting  under  what  they  called  a  referendum.  The 
triumph  of  these  principles  ended  in  a  practical 
wiping  out  of  the  States,  although  their  distinctive 
names  were  retained,  and  occasional  elections  were 
held  at  which  Governors  were  chosen,  whose  func- 
tions were  nil,  and  who  held  a  mere  honorary  po- 
sition, somewhat  like  those  of  the  Consuls  after 
Rome  had  become  an  Empire." 

"  One  moment,  please,"  I  said,  "  I  am  sorry  to 
interrupt  you,  but  you  are  getting  on  so  fast  that 
I  should  like  to  learn  more  details  of  my  coun- 
try's transformation  before  you  go  on." 

"  What  I  can  tell  you,  I  will,  but  as  I  have  al- 
ready said,  I  am  no  scholar," 

"  Tell  me,"  was  my  eager  reply,  "  what  ever 
became  of  the  woman  suffrage  movement  and  the 
Panama  Canal,  both  of  which  were  just  develop- 


74      THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

ing  when  this  unfortunate  aberration  of  mine  be- 
gan. 

"Aberration?"  he  said,  with  a  fatherly  smile, 
"  you  will  find  you  are  suffering  from  no  aberra- 
tion. But  about  your  questions.  I  cannot  answer 
them.  I  do  not  know  enough.  Those  things  be- 
long to  the  minutiae  of  history  and  are  only  for 
scholars.  When  we  have  finished  what  we  have 
on  hand,  I  will  take  you  down  to  the  public  library, 
and  you  can  ask  the  man  in  charge,  who  is  a  very 
learned  man,  and  if  he  is  not  able  to  tell  you  what 
you  want  to  know,  will  undoubtedly  be  able  to  refer 
you  to  volumes  in  his  charge  that  will  answer 
everything.  But  let  us  now  return  to  our  sub- 
ject. 

"  The  United  States  had  become  practically  an 
empire,  although  they  still  called  themselves  a  re- 
public. But  the  President  often  served  for  life, 
and  although  the  office  had  not  become  hereditary, 
it  was  a  common  thing  for  him  to  name  his  suc- 
cessor, in  accordance  with  a  precedent  established, 
I  believe,  in  your  own  time,  by  a  President  named 
Teddy.  So  far  as  governmental  functions  were 
concerned,  the  independence  of  the  States  had  been 
abolished,  and  all  legislation  emanated  from  Wash- 
ington, for  the  capital  of  the  nation  had  never 
been  moved.  Moreover  the  executive  had  grad- 
ually absorbed  more  and  more  of  the  powers  of 


THE  GREAT  CIVIL  WAR  75 

the  legislature.  The  President  suggested  laws  and 
ordinances  to  Congress,  which  simply  registered 
his  decrees  and  so  made  them  binding  upon  the 
courts.  The  great  repubhc  had  slowly  lapsed  into 
very  much  the  condition  of  the  Romans  in  the  sec- 
ond century,  and  although  the  people  were  fully 
conscious  of  the  loss  of  their  liberties,  they  were 
satisfied  with  the  material  prosperity  that  envel- 
oped the  nation  in  a  downy  covering  of  luxury  and 
ease.  There  were  no  more  wars.  The  nations 
were  all  at  peace,  and  the  whites  all  over  the 
world  had  nothing  to  divert  them  from  their  over- 
mastering pursuit  of  wealth,  which  they  looked 
upon  as  the  most  desirable  thing  in  the  world. 

"  They  had  long  ceased  to  have  any  intercourse 
with  the  blacks.  The  negro  State  had  been  ostra- 
cised from  the  first,  and  before  many  years  had 
elapsed  after  its  foundation,  by  a  most  illegal  and 
unconstitutional  line  of  procedure,  duly  upheld  by 
subservient  courts,  they  had  deprived  the  negroes 
of  their  seats  in  Congress  and  cast  them  out  from 
any  share  in  the  government.  They  formed  an 
isolated  nation  surrounded  by  hostile  communities, 
but  among  themselves  they  preserved  the  forms  of 
free  government  in  which  they  had  been  trained, 
and  formed  in  2200  the  only  genuine  republic  re- 
maining upon  the  surface  of  the  earth.  With  the 
whites  democracy  had  reached  its  zenith,  and  the 


76      THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

swing  was  again  running  strongly  toward  absolu- 
tism. 

"  Meanwhile  we  had  developed  rapidly.  Un- 
der free  institutions,  ambitious,  determined,  en- 
tirely rid  of  any  admixture  of  white  blood,  with 
immense  industrial  advancement,  thanks  to  the 
legacy  of  George  Andrews,  we  had  so  increased 
in  wealth  as  to  excite  the  cupidity  of  our  neighbors, 
who  finally  determined  to  expel  or  exterminate  us 
and  appropriate  our  rich  lands  to  their  own  use. 
Some  of  our  wise  men  had  foreseen  such  a  develop- 
ment, had  watched  the  signs  beyond  the  border  for 
many  years,  and  knowing  that  they  boded  an 
eventual  fight  for  existence,  had,  all  unknown  to 
our  enemies,  elaborated  and  perfected  a  military 
system  on  entirely  novel  lines,  which  they  hoped 
would  be  sufficient  to  protect  our  nation  from  any 
aggression  on  the  part  of  our  neighbors.  Looking 
back  upon  the  swift  course  of  events  during  those 
fateful  two  years,  it  seems  doubtful  if  our  pre- 
cautions and  preparations  would  have  sufficed,  if 
they  had  not  been  toward  the  end  planned  and 
directed  by  our  great  military  leader,  Josiah 
Brown. 

"  The  trouble  began  in  the  latter  part  of  the 
year  2248  when  a  '  bleached  '  negro,  a  white  with 
the  slightest  tinge  of  negro  blood  in  his  veins,  was 
discovered  in  one  of  our  manufacturing  towns. 


THE  GREAT  CIVIL  WAR  77 

We  had  lived  for  many  years  in  the  belief  that  all 
white  blood  had  been  eradicated,  and  this  man's 
presence  was  an  astonishing  thing.  It  is  not 
known  to  this  day  how  he  managed  to  evade  no- 
tice, for  although  he  had  penetrated  only  to  a 
border  town,  no  one  had  witnessed  his  approach. 
He  was  unknown  to  any  of  our  people,  and  al- 
though we  were  constantly  on  the  watch  for  spies, 
he  must  have  contrived,  by  blacking  his  face  and 
watching  his  opportunity,  to  evade  everybody's 
notice  up  to  the  moment  of  discovery,  when  he 
was  evidently  preparing  to  depart.  Of  course  he 
was  detained.  No  one  knew  what  information 
he  might  have  gathered  in  relation  to  our  indus- 
trial methods  which  we  had  always  guarded  so 
carefully.  He  was  one  of  our  enemies,  and  we 
could  not  permit  him  to  return.  Some  were  in 
favor  of  killing  him,  as  the  only  way  of  insuring 
perpetual  silence  on  his  part,  but  better  counsels 
prevailed  and  he  was  imprisoned  far  away  from 
his  people  in  the  center  of  our  State.  Early  in 
2249,  about  three  months  later,  a  demand  came 
from  Washington  for  his  release.  It  was  refused, 
and  immediately  followed  by  a  second  demand  for 
his  release  with  a  large  money  indemnity  and  an 
apology.  Our  foes  were  at  last  unmasked.  Their 
demands  were  scornfully  rejected,  and  our  entire 
people,  as  one  man,  prepared  for  the  worst.     We 


78      THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

knew  we  had  nothing  to  hope  for  in  case  we  were 
overrun  by  the  whites.  Former  experiences  had 
taught  us  that  victory  would  be  followed  by  whole- 
sale massacres,  probably  accompanied  by  fiendish 
tortures  and  eventual  extermination.  Better  die 
in  battle  than  at  the  stake  was  the  uppermost 
thought  in  every  mind,  and  we  began  to  gird  our- 
selves for  war,  it  must  be  confessed,  with  sinking 
hearts. 

"  The  whites  had  gathered  their  forces  for  the 
campaign,  and  we  had  planted  our  army  in  ad- 
vantageous positions  on  our  borders,  when  a  new- 
spirit  ran  through  the  nation  like  an  electric  thrill. 
Brown  and  his  lieutenants  had  for  years  been 
quietly  working  on  a  new  gun  for  the  artillery, 
which  would  hurl  missiles  with  tremendous  energy 
by  means  of  centrifugal  force.  Andrews'  inven- 
tion gave  us  our  force,  unlimited  in  amount,  and  it 
had  been  utilized  in  these  new  field  pieces  in  such 
an  ingenious  and  effective  way,  that  we  were  pro- 
vided with  artillery  not  only  immensely  superior 
to  that  of  our  opponents,  but  artillery  that  re- 
quired no  explosive  for  its  operation,  and  no  am- 
munition but  the  missiles  themselves. 

The  disparity  of  forces  was  very  great.  Our 
people  numbered  some  20,000,000,  while  our  an- 
tagonists were  able  to  recruit  their  army  from  a 
population  of  nearly  or  quite  200,000,000,  besides 


THE  GREAT  CIVIL  WAR  79 

auxiliary  forces  they  might  draw  from  the  colonies 
or  outlying  possessions.  Moreover,  the  feeling 
of  race  antipathy  had  spread  to  some  extent  over 
the  remainder  of  the  Western  Hemisphere,  and 
there  was  some  apprehension  on  our  part  that 
other  nations  might  join  our  foes  in  their  work 
of  extermination.  Our  only  hope  seemed  to  lie  in 
striking  at  once  with  a  force  so  powerful,  so  well 
organized  and  so  advantageously  maneuvered  as 
to  strike  terror  into  the  minds  of  our  opponents 
and  deter  others  from  coming  to  their  aid.  This 
plan  was  followed  out,  and  Brown,  only  waiting 
until  the  army  of  the  whites  was  within  striking 
distance,  swooped  down  upon  them  with  all  the 
forces  he  could  muster.  Our  infantry  hardly  fired 
a  shot.  The  work  was  done  by  the  artillery.  The 
range  and  efficiency  of  our  new  gun  was  so  far 
superior  to  any  they  were  able  to  bring  against  us, 
that  their  case  was  really  hopeless  from  the  start. 
"  As  they  advanced  toward  the  frontier  they 
were  met  by  a  perfect  hail  of  bullets  and  cannon 
balls,  which  filled  the  air  and  mowed  the  soldiers 
down  in  swathes.  The  swarms  of  flying  machines 
which  darkened  the  air  in  their  front  and  which, 
they  anticipated,  would  work  havoc  with  our  army, 
were  torn  to  pieces  as  they  flew,  and  the  explosives 
that  were  to  be  dropped  upon  our  armies  and  towns 
fell  upon  their  own  men  and  only  served  to  increase 


8o      THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

the  dreadful  slaughter. 

"  It  is  not  necessary  to  go  Into  the  horrible  de- 
tails of  what  followed.  Their  advance  was 
checked,  and  soon  turned  into  a  rout.  Brown  and 
his  army  pursued  them  hotly.  Army  after  army 
was  raised,  for  the  whites  never  lacked  courage, 
but  as  defeat  after  defeat  reduced  their  numbers 
and  their  resources,  although  their  dogged  deter- 
mination prolonged  the  conflict  unnecessarily,  they 
finally  sued  for  peace.  It  was  a  terrible  humilia- 
tion for  the  proud  and  arrogant  race,  but  there  was 
no  other  way  to  avert  practical  annihilation,  and 
they  had  to  come  to  it  in  the  end.  The  terms  we 
granted  were  unprecedented  in  the  history  of  the 
world.  We  asked  for  no  surrender  of  territory 
and  no  indemnity.  We  had  come  out  of  the  con- 
test almost  unscathed,  but  filled  with  indignation 
at  the  treatment  we  had  received,  and  Inflexibly 
determined  to  break  ofi^  forever  all  relations  with 
the  race  that  had  treated  us  for  hundreds  of  years 
with  the  utmost  injustice  and  contempt.  We  de- 
manded that  they  should  assume  the  expense  and 
provide  the  means  for  the  transportation  of  the 
entire  population  of  the  negro  state,  20,000,000 
of  them,  to  the  interior  of  Africa,  where  we  had 
already  prepared  the  soil  for  our  reception  by 
propaganda  extending  through  a  long  series  of 
years  among  the  native  inhabitants. 


THE  GREAT  CIVIL  WAR  8i 

"  To  their  credit,  be  it  said,  the  terms  of  the 
agreement  were  religiously  carried  out.  They  em- 
ployed a  fleet  of  about  i,ooo  vessels  in  the  work, 
and  in  less  than  two  years  the  great  transmigra- 
tion had  been  completed.  As  had  been  the  case 
with  our  former  migration,  200  years  before, 
everything  that  could  possibly  give  the  whites  any 
clue  to  the  real  foundation  of  our  prosperity  and 
power  was  destroyed  before  we  left  the  country, 
and  all  the  machinery  and  appliances  we  took  with 
us  on  the  transports  had  been  so  completely  dis- 
mantled that  no  mechanical  genius  among  the 
whites  could  divine  the  uses  or  the  relations  of 
the  multitude  of  parts.  Most  of  our  accumula- 
tions of  property  were  left  behind,  only  enough 
being  carried  with  us  to  our  new  home  to  tide  us 
over  for  the  few  months  that  were  necessary  to 
get  fairly  started  again.  And  so  we  came  back  to 
the  land  of  our  ancestors,  and  here  we  have  re- 
mained ever  since." 

"  But  how  about  these  extraordinary  and  hair- 
raising  things  that  you  were  to  demonstrate  to 
me?"  I  said,  still  incredulous  and  still  unable  to 
divest  myself  of  the  tone  and  manner  of  a  superior. 

"  Do  not  worry,  my  friend;  that  will  come  in  due 
time,  and  the  time  will  be  very  short  now,  for  our 
life  in  Africa  has  been  for  thousands  of  years  so 
uneventful  that  I  shall  have  little  more  to  tell." 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE    NEW    PHYSICS 

''AS  soon  as  we  were  settled  In  our  new  home, 
J~\.  we  organized  a  government,  a  republic, 
like  that  we  were  accustomed  to  in  the  country  we 
had  abandoned,  and  for  many  years  affairs  ran  on 
smoothly  enough.  Gradually  it  became  noised 
about  that  we  had  another  great  genius  in  our  State, 
a  worthy  successor  to  George  Andrews,  who  had 
given  us  our  first  great  lift  in  the  world.  But  the 
new  discovery,  although  it  was  dependent  upon 
that  of  Andrews  and  a  legitimate  development 
from  it,  was  still  more  astonishing  —  in  fact,  it 
was  the  most  surprising  discovery  that  was  ever 
made,  and  it  is  highly  improbable  that  anything 
so  wonderful  and  important  will  ever  be  discovered 
in  the  future.  The  inventor,  or  discoverer,  which- 
ever you  choose  to  call  him,  was  a  son  of  our  great 
military  leader,  Josiah  Brown,  and  had  been  named 
after  our  pioneer  genius,  whom  Brown  admired 
profoundly,  George  Andrews  Brown.  As  a  boy 
he  had  been  so  erratic  in  his  views,  and  so  willing 
to  expound  them  whenever  he  could  find  a  listener, 

82 


THE  NEW  PHYSICS  83 

and  moreover  had  been  such  an  interminable 
talker,  that  his  companions  had  made  an  acrostic 
from  his  initials,  and  used  to  call  him  '  Gab  ' 
Brown.  As  he  grew  to  manhood  his  disposition 
altered  to  some  extent  and  he  became  more  reticent 
and  meditative,  but  the  nickname  always  stuck  to 
him.  He  had  conceived  the  idea  of  his  invention 
before  we  left  the  United  States,  and  had  it  per- 
fected in  a  short  time  after  our  arrival  here. 

"  And  now  I  will  tell  you  what  it  was,  and  be- 
cause you  will  undoubtedly  disbelieve  what  I  say, 
I  am  prepared  to  demonstrate  its  truth  upon  the 
spot. 

"  He  discovered  that,  by  a  slight  modification  of 
the  alloy  invented  by  Andrews,  and  the  utilization 
of  some  simple,  though  novel,  mechanical  means, 
he  could  not  only  produce  magnetic  insulation,  but 
could  suspend,  or  cut  off,  or  insulate,  the  attraction 
of  gravitation/' 

I  stared  at  the  speaker  with  mouth  agape. 

"  But  that  is  impossible.  Why,  why,  every- 
thing would  fly  to  pieces.  Nonsense,  nonsense. 
The  thing  can't  be.  Oh,  no,  no.  I  have  heard 
enough." 

And  I  began  to  wonder  how  it  could  be  that  so 
cool,  sensible,  level-headed  a  man  as  my  host  ap- 
peared to  be,  could  also  be  a  lunatic. 

"  If  what  I  have  just  told  you  seems  to  you  so 


84      THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

incredible,  I  do  not  know  what  you  will  think  of 
what  I  have  to  show  you.  But  I  will  now  proceed 
to  justify  the  statements  I  have  already  made." 

So  speaking,  he  put  his  hand  in  the  bosom  of 
his  robe  and  withdrew  a  large  horseshoe  magnet 
with  its  armature,  which  he  handed  to  me  with 
the  request  that  I  would  test  its  attractive  power, 
which  I  did.  The  magnet  was  a  strong  one  and 
I  could  feel  the  pull  on  the  armature  when  there 
was  a  distance  of  a  quarter  of  an  inch  between 
them.  Then  he  produced  from  an  inside  pocket 
a  thin  sheet  made  of  some  material  I  did  not  recog- 
nize, but  which  had  somewhat  the  appearance  of 
celluloid.  It  was  made  up,  however,  of  two  sheets 
cunningly  joined  side  by  side,  the  dividing  line  run- 
ning down  the  middle  and  the  two  parts  being 
about  equal  in  size  and  dimensions. 

They  were  of  the  same  color,  but  one  was  pol- 
ished and  smooth,  while  the  other  was  dull  and 
while  not  rough,  looked  unfinished. 

"  These  two  sheets  joined  in  the  middle,  as  you 
see,  are  of  the  same  thickness,  but  one  of  them  is 
composed  of  our  insulating  medium,  while  the 
other,  although  of  nearly  the  same  composition, 
has  not  been  subjected  to  the  final  treatment  and 
has  no  insulating  power.  Now  try  them,"  and  he 
held  the  sheet  horizontally  before  me,  the  polished 
surface  being  the  nearest.     I  applied  the  magnet 


THE  NEW  PHYSICS  85 

to  the  upper  surface  of  the  sheet  and  held  up  the 
armature  on  the  under  side.  It  was  immediately 
drawn  out  of  my  hand,  as  I  had  expected,  and 
clapped  firmly  against  the  under  surface  of  the 
plate  and  held  there.  Under  instructions,  I  held 
the  magnet  in  position  while  my  host  slipped  the 
sheet  along  between  magnet  and  armature.  As 
soon  as  the  dividing  line  was  reached,  and  the  dull 
material  passed  beneath  the  magnet,  the  armature 
fell  to  the  ground.  My  surprise,  of  course,  was 
great.  I  picked  it  up,  and  taking  the  sheet  In  my 
own  hand,  tested  it  over  and  over  again,  but  the 
result  was  invariable.  When  the  sheet  of  dull 
stuff  was  interposed  the  attractive  force  of  the 
magnet  was  instantly  annulled.  There  was  no 
doubt  about  it,  and  it  required  very  little  imagina- 
tion on  my  part  to  appreciate  the  mechanical  pos- 
sibilities that  lay  in  this  simple  but  astounding  in- 
vention. 

"  You  are  satisfied  of  the  truth  of  my  first  as- 
sertion?" he  inquired,  and  I  readily  assented. 
"  It  was  not  so  much  of  a  strain  on  your  credulity 
as  my  next  demonstration  will  be,  because,  al- 
though your  people  have  never  made  the  discovery, 
it  is  not  so  altogether  out  of  line  with  what  they 
have  found  out  before  as  to  be  absolutely  incredible 
to  you,  especially  when  you  see  it  with  your  own 
eyes.     But  now,   I  warn  you,  your  belief  in  the 


86      THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

possible  Is  to  be  taxed  to  the  utmost,  and  I  hope 
you  will  endure  the  shock  to  your  preconceived  no- 
tions without  losing  your  equipoise." 

"  You  need  not  worry  about  me,"  I  said,  "  noth- 
ing you  can  show  me  will  disturb  my  equipoise." 

'*  Very  well,  then,"  and  he  took  up,  for  the  first 
time  since  it  had  been  brought  over  by  the  boy,  the 
table-top,  as  I  have  called  it.  I  then  noticed,  for 
the  first  time,  that  all  around  the  edge  were  small 
round  knobs,  like  the  handles  of  small  drawers, 
and  such  in  fact  they  proved  to  be,  for  he  withdrew, 
one  after  another,  around  about  one-half  the  board, 
thin  sheets  that  looked  very  much  like  the  dull 
material  with  which  we  had  been  making  our  tests 
of  the  magnet.  These  sheets  having  been  re- 
moved and  laid  beside  him  on  the  grass  he  put  the 
board  down  flat  upon  the  ground,  and  picked  up 
a  few  small  stones  in  the  vicinity,  which  he  handed 
to  me.  I  was  standing  at  the  time  about  four 
or  five  feet  from  the  board  and  as  he  gave  me  the 
pebbles  he  asked  me  to  throw  them  one  by  one 
on  the  board.  I  did  so  and  was  considerably  sur- 
prised to  notice  that  one  or  two  of  them  (per- 
haps I  threw  half  a  dozen  at  this  first  trial)  that 
one  or  two  of  them,  I  say,  appeared  to  swerve  a 
little  to  one  side  and  they  all  landed  on  that  half 
of  the  board  from  which  he  had  removed  the  slides. 
He  smiled  at  my  expression  of  surprise  and  handed 


THE  NEW  PHYSICS  87 

the  pebbles  to  me  again.  In  order  to  determine 
the  accuracy  of  my  previous  observation,  I  threw 
the  six  or  so  pebbles,  this  time,  with  deliberate  in- 
tention so  that  they  should  fall  on  the  half  nearest 
to  me,  which  was  the  part  from  which  the  slides 
had  not  been  removed.  My  suspicion  was  cor- 
rect. Not  one  of  them  fell  where  I  had  intended 
it  to  fall.  They  all  swerved  in  the  air  and  struck 
the  farther  side.  Now  considering  that  the  board 
was  only  four  or  five  feet  away,  and  I  threw  with 
deliberation  and  care,  this  outcome  of  my  effort 
puzzled  me  a  good  deal.  Seeing  this,  my  host 
turned  the  board  around,  so  that  the  empty  half 
was  toward  me,  and  I  had  no  trouble  in  landing  all 
the  stones  on  this  half  of  the  board.  He  then 
asked  me  to  throw  them  on  the  other  half,  as  I  did 
before,  the  part  farthest  away.  I  threw  them,  as 
before,  and  one  after  another,  in  spite  of  my  in- 
creasing care  in  making  the  throws,  every  one 
landed  on  the  nearest  part  of  the  board.  Not  only 
that,  but  one  of  them,  at  least,  when  fairly  at  the 
middle  line,  seemed  as  if  it  bounded  back,  so  sud- 
den was  its  inexplicable  change  of  direction. 

"  I  am  showing  you  these  things  gradually,"  he 
remarked  with  his  placid  smile,  "  so  that  you  may 
get  accustomed  to  them  without  too  much  of  a 
wrench  to  your  ancient  ideas  of  what  is  regular  and 
proper  in  Nature." 


88      THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

At  this  point  he  inserted  again  all  the  slides 
which  were  lying  beside  the  board,  thus  making 
both  sides  similar  again. 

"  Now,"  he  said,  "  the  insulation  is  complete. 
Try  your  pebbles  again." 

I  took  them  up  and  tossed  one  toward  the  board. 
It  went  as  any  well  conducted  missile  would  go 
until  in  its  descending  curve  it  came  to  a  point 
vertically  above  the  edge  of  the  board,  where  it 
changed  its  course  for  a  horizontal  one  and 
dropped  on  the  ground  on  the  other  side,  at  the 
feet  of  the  negro.  One  after  another  flew  over 
the  board  in  the  same  way,  and  my  astonishment 
was  so  great  that  I  drew  in  my  breath  with  a  loud 
"  Whew,"  that  seemed  to  please  the  negro  im- 
mensely, although  his  dignity,  real  or  assumed, 
would  not  allow  him  more  than  a  smile  of  un- 
usually broad  proportions. 

"You  are  doing  well,"  he  said;  "let  us  go  a 
little  further.  Hold  a  pebble  over  the  middle  of 
the  board  and  drop  it." 

I  picked  one  of  them  up  and  holding  it  over  the 
center  of  the  board  felt  a  curious  sense  of  lightness 
in  my  arm  and  a  seeming  lack  of  control,  for  the 
arm  rose  a  little  in  the  air  without  my  volition  and 
it  required  a  decided  readjustment  of  its  muscular 
action  to  bring  it  down  again  to  a  level.  I 
saw   the   negro   smile   as   he   noticed  the   action, 


THE  NEW  PHYSICS  89 

and  then  I  dropped  the  stone.  Instead  of 
falling,  it  shot  out  horizontally  toward  the  black 
man  until  it  reached  the  edge  of  the  board  when 
it  fell  to  the  earth  at  his  feet.  To  say  that  I  was 
surprised  hardly  expresses  my  feelings,  but  I  had 
seen  jugglers  do  many  wonderful  things,  and  I  was 
still  disposed  to  charge  these  curious  happenings 
to  some  sort  of  trickery.  The  only  comment  he 
made  was  to  murmur, 

"  The  pebble,  being  cut  off  from  terrestrial 
gravitation  was  attracted  toward  me  as  the  nearest 
and  largest  material  object,  until  it  came  again 
within  the  sphere  of  the  earth's  attraction." 

I  said  nothing,  but  pondered  a  little,  and  waited 
to  see  what  might  be  the  next  performance  on  the 
programme.  Meanwhile  I  seated  myself  under  a 
tree,  where  I  could  watch  the  proceedings  at  my 
ease.  Presently  he  began  to  take  the  board  or 
table-top  apart.  He  removed  all  the  slides,  and 
then  from  the  interior  he  brought  out  other  con- 
tents, which  I  had  not  seen  before,  and  for  which 
there  hardly  seemed  to  be  room  inside.  But 
there  they  were  and  he  pulled  out  a  lot  of  things, 
reminding  me  still  more  of  a  conjurer,  who  brings 
out  a  whole  dry  goods  store  and  a  menagerie  from 
the  hat  he  has  borrowed  from  a  spectator.  First 
there  were  several  lengths  of  wire,  as  it  seemed  to 
me,  although  they  were  so  extremely  flexible  that 


90      THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

they  swung  from  his  fingers  like  strings.  But 
they  had  a  metallic  luster  and  I  took  them  to  be 
wire  that  had  undergone  some  peculiar  method  of 
annealing.  Then  out  came  several  short  rods,  and 
these  were  stiff  and  pointed  at  both  ends,  appar- 
ently made  of  metal  but  brownish  red  in  color,  re- 
minding me  of  the  curious  bomb-proofs  or  what- 
ever they  were,  that  I  had  seen  when  approaching 
this  singular  community. 

He  chose  a  spot  underneath  an  overhanging 
branch,  and  after  some  rather  careful  changes  and 
readjustments  of  their  position  and  angles  toward 
each  other  and  the  ground,  he  stuck  the  small  rods 
into  the  earth,  inclining  toward  each  other  and  near 
enough  to  cross,  like  the  letter  X,  and  so  con- 
structed a  little  fence,  about  three  feet  long  and 
perhaps  four  inches  high  under  and  parallel  with 
the  branch  which  stretched  almost  horizontally 
overhead.  He  then  hung  several  of  the  wires  or 
strings  from  the  tree,  immediately  over  this  fence 
at  intervals  of  six  inches  or  so,  letting  each  one 
down  so  as  to  touch  the  fence  below.  I  felt  im- 
pelled to  ask  him  what  they  were,  wires  or  strings, 
but  he  answered,  rather  shortly  I  thought, 
*'  Neither." 

I  was  not  to  be  shaken  off,  however,  before  I 
had  satisfied  my  curiosity,  and  so  I  said: 

*'  They  look,  and  those  little  rods  also  look,  as 


THE  NEW  PHYSICS  91 

if  they  might  be  made  of  the  same  material  as  the 
spherical  prominences  I  saw  just  beyond  the  hills." 

'*  There  is  some  similarity,"  he  replied. 

"What  were  those  things?     Telephones?" 

"  We  use  them  sometimes  for  that  purpose. 
We  can  communicate  speech  through  them." 

"  Is  there  any  other  use  for  them?  "  I  persisted. 

"  Oh,  yes.     They  have  very  important  uses." 

"  What,  for  instance?" 

"  I  will  show  you  one,"  he  said,  "  when  we  visit 
the  public  buildings  you  see  down  there." 

"  But  I  wish  to  find  out  all  I  can  during  the 
short  time  I  remain  here,"  I  said,  with  some  heat 
and  impatience.  "  What  is  the  main  or  most  im- 
portant use  of  those  structures?  " 

"  Pray  God  you  may  never  have  cause  to  know," 
he  said,  with  an  air  of  solemnity,  and  not  another 
word  would  he  speak  about  them,  but  went  silently 
on  with  his  work. 

When  he  had  completed  his  arrangement  and 
the  various  rearrangements  of  the  rods  and  strings 
he  came  away  and  seated  himself  by  my  side.  I 
began  to  feel  that  he  was  very  much  in  earnest, 
and  to  suspect  that  trickery  or  legerdemain  per- 
haps might  not  account  for  all  that  I  had  seen.  I 
myself  knew  several  tricks,  very  puzzling  to  the 
uninitiated,  which  depended  upon  invisible  threads 
and  small  plugs  of  wax  for  their  successful  per- 


92      THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

formance,  but  sharp  as  I  might  look  I  could  detect 
nothing  of  the  kind  in  these  actions  of  my  host, 
who  appeared  to  be  perfectly  honest  and  serious 
in  everything  he  showed  me. 

We  sat  side  by  side  without  speaking  for  per- 
haps ten  minutes,  myself  watching  keenly,  and 
now  and  then  gazing  over  the  landscape,  at  men 
and  women  busily  occupied  in  their  daily  tasks, 
at  the  children,  running  to  and  fro  or  chasing 
balls  in  their  games,  and  he  profoundly  medita- 
tive, with  his  eyes  fixed  upon  his  little  mechanical 
appliances.  I  was,  I  confess,  a  little  piqued  by  the 
curt  way  in  which  he  had  disposed  of  my  questions, 
but  when  I  came  to  consider  what  he  had  already 
told  me  about  the  profound  and  deadly  secret  in 
the  possession  of  his  people,  with  their  jealousy 
of  the  white  man  and  their  determination  that  he 
should  never  know  it,  I  realized  that  he  was  prob- 
ably right,  and  that  I  had  been  trying  to  obtain 
information  that  he  was  in  every  way  bound  not  to 
disclose.  I  understood  now  that  my  inquiries 
must  be  circumscribed  within  certain  bounds  — 
that  beyond  these  I  could  never  go. 


CHAPTER  IX 

AN  ASTOUNDING   EXPERIMENT 

PRESENTLY  he  rose  and  went  over  to  the 
place  where  he  had  stuck  his  rods  and  hung 
his  strings,  and  began  to  remove  all  the  strings 
excepting  the  end  ones;  but  first  he  laid  one  along 
the  bough,  connecting  at  each  end  with  the  strings 
hanging  from  the  ends.  Now  he  began  the  opera- 
tion of  removal  very  cautiously.  It  seemed  to 
me  that  he  fumbled  a  great  deal  in  unfastening 
them  from  the  bough,  either  from  awkwardness 
or  some  excessive  and,  as  it  seemed  to  me,  un- 
necessary caution,  and  I  stepped  forward  to  as- 
sist him.  They  were  very  insecurely  attached  to 
the  bough,  hardly  more  than  barely  hooked  over 
it,  and  I  put  out  a  hand  to  twitch  one  of  them 
away.  Instantly  he  swung  back  his  arm  and 
struck  me  a  staggering  blow  in  the  chest,  which 
almost  threw  me  off  my  feet.  As  it  was  I  was 
knocked  backward  three  or  four  feet,  for  he  was 
a  much  larger  and  more  powerful  man  than  I  and 
the  rudeness  of  the  assault  astonished  me,  contrast- 
ing so  strongly  with  the  kind  and  considerate  be- 

93 


94      THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

havior  of  the  man  up  to  that  time.  At  the  mo- 
ment I  thought  again  I  had  to  deal  with  a  lunatic, 
but  he  immediately  turned  and  grasped  my  arm 
to  support  me,  while  he  caught  his  breath  with 
a  gasp. 

"  Pardon  me,"  he  said  at  length  when  he  had 
recovered  himself,  "  I  was  foolish.  I  should 
have  warned  you.  I  am  sorry  for  what  has  oc- 
curred, but  it  was  the  only  way.  If  you  had 
touched  one  of  those  strings,  as  you  intended  to 
do,  you  would  have  died  on  the  instant,"  and  while 
I  gazed  upon  him  with  a  look  of  incredulous  hor- 
ror, he  added:  "  I  have  here  tapped  a  reservoir 
of  energy  immeasurably  greater  than  any  you  have 
ever  known.  Do  not  attempt,  while  you  are  with 
us,  to  meddle  with  anything  with  which  you  are 
not  already  perfectly  familiar.  You  are  in  a  new 
environment,  of  which  you  know  nothing." 

Now  I  was  sure  that  I  had  to  deal  with  a  crazy 
man,  one  of  the  cool-blooded  kind  who  appear  per- 
fectly sane  excepting  on  one  single  point,  a  mono- 
maniac, or  as  it  is  now  fashionable  to  call  them, 
a  paranoiac.  I  began  to  fear  that  he  might  de- 
velop a  homicidal  tendency,  and  I  speculated 
wildly  on  my  extraordinary  situation,  and  on  what 
chance  I  had  of  escaping  from  these  black  men 
with  a  whole  skin. 

The  negro,  who,  after  this  momentary  flush  of 


AN  ASTOUNDING  EXPERIMENT     95 

excitement  had  passed,  seemed  to  have  recovered 
his  equanimity,  now  spoke  again,  before  I  had  time 
to  formulate  any  plan  of  dealing  with  him. 

"  This  is  the  last  demonstration  I  shall  give  you 
before  we  go  down  and  meet  some  of  the  other 
members  of  the  community." 

"  Very  well,"  I  said,  "  I  should  like  to  see  your 
whole  bunch  of  tricks.  They  are  good  ones  so  far 
as  you  have  gone." 

"  You  are  still  suspicious,"  he  said,  with  that 
inscrutable  smile  of  his,  "  but  will  be  less  so  after 
this  test  of  your  incredulity."  He  paused  a  mo- 
ment, walked  over  and  took  a  last  squint  at  his 
toy-like  arrangement,  and  then,  turning  to  me 
asked  if  my  pistol  were  loaded. 

I  took  it  from  my  pocket  and  examined  it.  It 
was  an  automatic,  and  loaded  with  smokeless  pow- 
der cartridges.  The  magazine  was  full.  I  felt 
comparatively  secure  against  any  immediate  at- 
tack, and  if  he  sprang  upon  me  with  evident  in- 
tention to  do  me  physical  harm,  I  would  have  shot 
him  on  the  spot,  without  regard  to  consequences. 

"  Yes,"  I  replied,  "  it  is  loaded." 

He  went  back  a  few  steps  and  stationed  him- 
self a  few  feet  behind  his  strings  and  sticks  per- 
haps ten  feet  away  from  me. 

"  Now,"  he  says,  "  I  want  you  to  fire  at  me 
with  that  pistol,  if  you  think  you  can  throw  your 


96      THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

bullets  within  the  limits  I  have  arranged  between 
the  tree  and  the  earth.  But  do  not  fire  outside 
of  those  bounds." 

What  a  request !  I  am  not  a  dead  shot  with  the 
revolver,  but  I  could  certainly  put  ten  holes 
through  him  at  that  short  distance  within  a  minute. 
I  declined  to  make  the  trial. 

"  I  won't  do  it,"  I  exclaimed.  "  I  have  seen 
that  trick  on  the  stage,  but  the  circumstances  were 
entirely  different.  You  could  not  stand  a  min- 
ute under  such  a  rain  of  bullets,  and  this  is  no 
trick  pistol,  nor  are  the  bullets  fake  ones." 

"  Shoot  away.      I  will  run  the  risk." 

"  No,  no,  I  absolutely  refuse,"  and  I  threw  the 
pistol  upon  the  ground. 

He  stood  a  moment  irresolute,  then  quietly  re- 
moved his  outer  garment,  a  white  flowing  robe  and 
suspended  it  from  a  branch  in  the  rear  of  the  one 
from  which  the  strings  were  hanging  and  came 
over  where  I  was  standing. 

"  Well,"  he  said,  "  I  am  sorry  you  have  so  lit- 
tle confidence  in  me,  but  you  will  at  least  conde- 
scend to  exhibit  your  marksmanship  on  that  robe, 
will  you  not?  " 

"  I  certainly  will,"  said  I,  "  if  you  do  not  object 
to  having  it  peppered  full  of  holes.  It  is  not 
much  of  a  test  of  marksmanship,  though.  It  is 
a  good  deal  like  trying  to  hit  a  barn  door  with 


AN  ASTOUNDING  EXPERIMENT     97 

the  muzzle  of  the  gun  in  contact  with  it.  I 
should  rather  stand  fifty  or  sixty  feet  away." 

"  That  would  not  answer  my  purpose,  nor 
would  it  convince  you  yourself.  If  you  found  no 
marks  upon  the  cloth  at  that  distance  you  would 
think  you  had  missed  your  aim.  No  matter  how 
much  chagrined  you  might  be,  that  would  be  your 
conclusion." 

"  And  you  want  — " 

"  I  want  you  to  shoot  at  that  robe  from  a  point 
so  near  that  you  will  feel  absolutely  certain  of  hit- 
ting it." 

"  Very  well.     And  you  think  I  can't  hit  it?  " 

"  Yes." 

"How  ridiculous!  Why  it  covers  the  entire 
background  of  that  hole  in  the  air  you  tell  me  to 
shoot  through,  and  I  am  only  three  or  four  feet 
away.     I  could  not  help  hitting  with  my  eyes  shut." 

"  Shoot." 

I  raised  the  weapon  and  fired. 

Not  a  mark  upon  the  white  surface  of  the  tar- 
get. I  fired  again.  Still  no  mark.  Nor  had  the 
white  robe  stirred  as  it  hung,  or  showed  any  sign 
of  having  been  touched.  I  was  not  only  surprised 
but  annoyed,  and  immediately  suspected  that  my 
suave  and  dignified  host  had  so  far  unbent  as  to 
do  me  a  mean  trick  by  substituting  blank  cartridges 
in  the  revolver.     How  he  could  have  done  this 


98      THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

was  beyond  my  power  to  explain,  for  the  pistol 
had  never  been  out  of  my  possession.  Aha ! 
I  had  it.  The  substitution  had  been  made  while  I 
was  asleep,  during  the  past  night.  Why  had  I 
not  thought  of  it  before?  I  had  looked  the  wea- 
pon over  before  I  began  firing,  but  as  everything 
looked  all  right  I  had  not  examined  the  cartridges 
closely,  not  deeming  it  necessary.  But  now  I  de- 
termined to  make  sure,  and  removing  the  magazine 
emptied  the  cartridges  and  picking  them  up  one  by 
one  scrutinized  them  with  great  care.  A  side 
glance  showed  me  the  negro  sitting  quietly  in  his 
place,  with  that  inscrutable  smile  that  so  provoked 
me.  The  cartridges  were  all  right.  There  could 
be  no  doubt  of  that.  They  had  the  stamp  of  the 
manufacturer  on  the  base,  and  as  I  tested  the  bul- 
let with  my  pocket  knife,  I  found  it  hard  steel. 
No,  the  cartridges  were  genuine.  The  fault, 
somehow,  lay  with  myself.  And  yet  it  seemed 
impossible  that  I  could  miss  a  target  three  feet  in 
diameter  and  less  than  a  dozen  feet  away,  and  with 
an  automatic  weapon  too,  which  is  supposed  to 
hit  the  mark  whether  you  aim  or  not.  So,  puzzled 
as  I  was,  I  slipped  the  magazine  back  into  place 
for  another  trial.  This  time  I  took  more  careful 
aim,  and,  as  I  have  said  before,  I  am  not  a  bad 
shot  with  the  revolver  under  any  circumstances.  I 
fired  again.     No  result.     Not  a  mark  on  the  tar- 


AN  ASTOUNDING  EXPERIMENT     99 

get,  not  a  leaf  stirred  on  any  tree  or  bush,  not  a 
blade  of  grass  bent  Its  head,  and  not  a  speck  of  dirt 
flew  to  indicate  where  the  bullet  struck.  I  began 
to  be  provoked.  This  beat  any  trick  I  had  ever 
seen,  but  I  objected  to  having  it  played  upon  me. 
I  fired  the  remaining  shots,  looked  around,  saw  the 
grin  widening  on  the  face  of  the  black,  and  fairly 
carried  away  with  a  feeling  of  exasperated  rage, 
I  hurled  the  pistol  at  the  target. 

"  I  will  hit  it  anyhow,"  I  cried,  and  as  I  spoke 
I  stood  with  mouth  agape,  fixed  to  the  spot  and 
almost  horror-stricken,  for  as  the  weapon  reached 
the  imaginary  curtain  between  me  and  the  target, 
it  vanished,  leaving  not  a  trace.  Vanished  into 
thin  air!  The  thing  was  impossible.  And  yet 
there  it  was.  It  had  happened  right  before  my 
eyes.  How  could  it  be?  I  looked  around  at  my 
friend.  He  smiled  again  and  quietly  remarked, 
as  he  rose  from  his  sitting  position: 

"  It  is  gone.  You  will  never  see  it  again.  You 
have  lost  it,  and  it  can  never  be  recovered." 

"  But  how  is  that?  "  I  replied.  "  I  suppose 
the  trick  is  done.  I  must  admit  that  you  surpass 
the  best  I  ever  saw.  But  now  that  the  exhibition 
is  complete,  I  expect  my  revolver  and  ammunition 
to  be  returned  to  me." 

"  That  Is  impossible,  my  friend.  There  Is  no 
trick  involved   in  this   demonstration,   as   I   have 


loo     THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

told  you  from  the  first.  I  have  been  showing  you 
some  of  the  inventions  and  discoveries  made  by  our 
race,  which  have  given  us  our  position  at  the  head 
of  mankind.  I  had  hoped  to  convince  you  before 
this." 

"  But  where  are  these  things  that  have  disap- 
peared?" I  asked  with  some  impatience.  Mean- 
while he  was  carefully  dismantling  his  apparatus 
of  strings  and  sticks,  and  stowing  them  away 
where  they  came  from. 

"  I  do  not  know,  nor  does  anyone.  Our  scien- 
tists tell  us  that  objects  disappearing  under  such 
circumstances  are  possibly  resolved  into  the  or- 
iginal element.  They  say  that  we  have  opened  a 
door  into  another  world,  and  that  these  vanishing 
material  things  go  through  that  door  into  another 
phase  of  existence.  It  is  only  a  crack  and  no  foot 
or  eye  has  ever  been  able  to  pass  through  it  and 
return.  Nobody  can  tell  what  is  on  the  other  side. 
Our  learned  men,  among  the  physicists,  have  been 
working  for  a  thousand  years,  ever  since  this  phe- 
nomenon was  discovered,  to  arrive  at  some  ex- 
planation of  it,  but  all  in  vain.  You  can  form  an 
idea,  now,  from  what  you  have  already  seen,  why 
we  are  so  confident  of  our  power,  and  why  we 
fear  no  attack  from  anyone  on  the  face  of  the 
earth,  especially  from  any  white  man." 

By  this  time  he  had  gathered  up  his  apparatus 


AN  ASTOUNDING  EXPERIMENT     loi 

and  suggested  that  we  should  go  down  again  into 
the  settlement. 

"  I  fear,"  he  remarked  as  we  set  out,  "  that  our 
time  is  short.  It  is  now  almost  noon.  Do  you 
wish  to  take  luncheon?  For  myself  I  eat  but 
twice  a  day,  but  you  can  eat  now  if  you  choose." 

I  had  taken  a  very  hearty  breakfast  and  said  that 
I  would  wait  until  later  in  the  day  before  eating 
again. 

"  Then  we  will  go  to  some  of  our  public  build- 
ings, for  there  are  still  some  things  I  ought  to 
show  you  before  you  return  to  your  own  people." 


CHAPTER  X 

ANARCHY 

WE  directed  our  steps  toward  a  low  round 
structure,  something  like  half  a  mile  away, 
which  he  spoke  of  as  the  Camera,  and  I  seized 
the  opportunity  as  we  walked  leisurely  along,  to 
gain  additional  information  about  this  strange 
country  and  still  stranger  people.  I  had  already 
been  forced  to  abandon  all  my  preconceived  ideas 
about  the  negro.  While  he  was  gathering  his 
things  together  I  had  been  busily  revolving  in  my 
mind  what  I  had  seen  and  heard  since  my  arrival. 
I  could  no  longer  conceal  from  myself  the  unwel- 
come truth  that  I  was  in  the  company  of  a  superior 
being.  My  pride  of  race  was  broken  down.  I 
felt  myself  to  be  an  inferior,  and  unpalatable  as 
this  conclusion  was  I  had  to  swallow  it.  With  my 
mind  once  at  rest  on  this  point,  however,  and  a 
frank  acceptance  of  our  relative  position,  I  be- 
gan to  feel  more  like  a  pupil,  and  privileged  to 
question  him  without  my  previous  sense  of  humil- 
iation. I  determined  to  find  out  all  T  could  in  the 
limited  time  I  apparently  had  at  my  command. 


ANARCHY  103 

"  What  Is  your  form  of  government?  "  I  asked. 
"  Republican,  I  suppose,  as  you  came  from  the 
United  States." 

"  We  have  no  government,"  he  replied;  "  that 
was  done  away  with  long  ago." 

"  No  government !  What  do  you  do  with  your 
criminals?  How  do  you  keep  order?  How  do 
you  protect  yourselves  from  aggression?  " 

"  In  order  to  give  you  a  proper  idea  of  the 
conditions  in  which  we  live,  I  think  I  had  better 
take  up  and  continue  our  history  from  the  time 
we  settled  here  in  Africa  and  made  ourselves  inde- 
pendent. When  we  first  settled  down,  we  organ- 
ized a  government  much  upon  the  plan  of  the  one 
we  had  before  we  left  the  old  country,  and  that 
had  been  based,  as  you  say,  upon  that  of  the  United 
States,  and  although  our  former  masters  had  ended 
with  an  empire,  we  had  preserved  the  republican 
form  of  government  in  our  own  State.  So  wc  set 
up  a  similar  one  here.  But  when  we  had  become 
firmly  established,  and  everything  was  going  on 
swimmingly,  as  it  seemed  to  most  of  us,  a  class  of 
thinking  men  was  gradually  developed,  who  began 
to  question  and  criticise  the  constitution  of  society 
and  the  justice  of  our  form  of    government. 

"  Somehow,  partly  perhaps  in  consequence  of 
this  criticism,  but  mainly,  I  think,  because  the  form 
of  government  was  not  suited  to  our  race,  our  so- 


I04    THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

ciety  began  to  deteriorate.  Some  persons  thought 
we  were  relapsing  into  barbarism.  We  had 
brought  over  with  us  not  only  the  forms  of  govern- 
ment, but  the  commercial  and  social  methods  of  the 
whites,  and  after  a  hundred  years  or  so  our  people 
found  themselves  truly  in  a  parlous  state.  We  ex- 
ploited the  resources  of  the  land  in  every  way. 
We  destroyed  forests  for  lumber,  mined  for  metals 
and  coal,  went  mad  after  money,  became  luxurious 
and  lazy,  neglected  our  civic  duties  and  seemed 
to  many  to  be  racing  rapidly  to  destruction. 
Crime  was  frequent,  our  prisons  were  crammed, 
our  courts  were  full  of  litigants,  in  spite  of  the  fact 
that  the  delays  of  the  law  were  most  disheartening, 
and  when  decisions  were  finally  handed  down 
they  were  often  most  unsatisfactory  and  incon- 
clusive. Something  had  to  be  done,  and  after 
much  discussion  by  our  legislators  and  In  popular 
assemblies,  it  was  determined  that  the  first  thing 
to  be  corrected  should  be  the  clogging  of  the 
wheels  of  justice  and  the  Interminable  proceedings 
in  the  courts.  A  beginning  was  made  by  an  at- 
tempt to  regulate  the  methods  by  which  suits  were 
conducted  by  the  attorneys  who  had  them  In 
charge.  It  was  found  that  a  great  deal  of  time 
was  wasted  both  in  the  preparation  of  cases  and 
their  presentation  in  court  by  the  time  honored 
practice  of  turning  aside  from  the  case  Immediately 


ANARCHY  105 

in  hand  and  looking  back  through  the  records  of 
past  trials  for  judicial  decisions  in  similar  cases 
years  before.  It  was  asserted  by  the  lawyers  that 
it  was  necessary  to  look  up  these  decisions  and  ap- 
ply them  to  the  case  in  hand  because  any  law  passed 
by  a  law-making  body  was  uncertain  of  application 
until  the  exact  meaning  and  intent  of  every  sen- 
tence had  been  decided  in  open  court.  In  other 
words  a  law  was  good  for  nothing  until  it  had  been 
buttressed  and  backed  up  by  the  opinion  of  some 
judge  or  judges.  This  meant  practically  that  our 
laws  were  made  by  the  judges  and  not  by  the  legis- 
lators as  representatives  of  the  people.  More- 
over, it  was  ascertained  that,  in  looking  up  these 
previous  decisions,  called  precedents,  the  attorneys 
always  selected  and  brought  out  to  the  attention 
of  the  court  only  the  cases  that  favored  their  own 
side  of  the  suit,  so  that  the  most  industrious  or 
keen-witted  lawyer  would  often  win  his  case,  with- 
out any  regard  whatever  to  the  justice  of  his  con- 
tentions. It  was  also  held  by  the  critics  of  this 
practice,  to  the  great  disgust  and  contempt  of  the 
legal  fraternity,  who  seemed  to  consider  as  one 
man  that  the  public  or  laity  were  not  qualified  to 
judge  in  the  matter,  it  was  held,  I  say,  that  it  was 
unfair  and  led  inevitably  to  injustice  to  allow  any 
consideration  of  precedents  whatever  to  have 
weight  in  any  suit,  that  no  case  was  like  any  other 


io6    THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

and  never  could  be,  because  human  affairs  were  in 
such  a  condition  of  incessant  flux  and  change,  that 
every  case  ought,  of  right,  to  be  decided  on  its 
own  merits  and  without  reference  to  any  other,  and 
that  the  judge  who  actually  heard  the  case  could 
apply  the  law  and  interpret  the  law,  in  that  con- 
crete case  then  and  there  before  him,  better  than 
a  judge  who  had  rendered  a  decision  and  given 
his  interpretation  of  the  law  in  a  somewhat  sim- 
ilar case,  years  before,  since  the  cases,  no  matter 
how  great  their  outward  similarity  could  never  be 
identical,  on  account  of  the  constantly  changing  re- 
lations and  environment  of  the  parties  to  the 
suits.  It  was  as  foolish,  said  the  critics,  as  to 
maintain  that  any  two  trees  in  a  forest  are  pre- 
cisely alike,  or  any  two  men  or  women.  It  was 
asserted,  moreover,  that  lawyers  themselves  prac- 
tically acknowledged  the  uselessness  of  constantly 
appealing  to  precedents,  for  a  court  often  reversed 
a  previous  decision,  or  differed  from  it,  or  modified 
it,  and  it  had  even  been  known  that. a  court  re- 
versed its  own  decisions  in  accordance  with  sub- 
sequent enlightenment  or  more  mature  considera- 
tion. So  it  was  finally  determined  to  begin  our 
reforms  by  abolishing  all  reference  to  precedent, 
neglecting  all  previous  decisions,  and  confining  the 
attention  of  the  attorneys  and  the  court  strictly  to 
the  case  in  hand,  thus  compelling  them  to  decide 


ANARCHY  107 

every  case  upon  its  own  merits,  without  reference 
to  any  other. 

"  The  effect  of  this  change  in  legal  procedure 
was  somewhat  startling.  It  certainly  facilitated 
the  despatch  of  business  before  the  courts,  but  it 
went  so  far  in  diminishing  the  opportunities  for 
chicanery,  and  put  such  a  heavy  handicap  upon 
learning  and  industry  in  the  legal  profession  that 
the  qualities  of  the  successful  advocate  were  mainly 
logical  ability  and  shrewdness,  including  in  the  lat- 
ter a  knowledge  of  human  nature.  But  the  qual- 
ities that  won  cases  before  a  bench  or  a  jury  were 
those  that  could  be  exhibited  openly  in  court  and 
could  not  be  hidden  from  observation.  There 
could  be  no  more  delving  in  musty  records  for 
what  would  support  one's  contentions,  and  ignor- 
ing or  concealing  everything  antagonistic.  This 
made  our  trials  shorter  and  much  more  satisfactory 
and  the  public  was  convinced  that  better  justice 
was  done.  It  also  curiously  enough,  resulted  in  a 
considerable  diminution  of  civil  suits  and  conse- 
quently of  the  number  of  lawyers,  which  some  per- 
sons thought  a  gain  of  itself.  But  criminal  cases 
were  not  much  diminished,  and  our  entire  court 
system  continued  to  be  an  expensive  burden  to 
carry. 

"  Events  now  began  to  move  swiftly.  The  peo- 
ple had  made  one  breach  in  the  old  time  honored 


io8    THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

conventions,  and  the  results  had  been  good.  They 
began  to  devise  others.  They  found  their  courts 
very  costly  in  salaries,  fees  and  wages,  and  began 
to  wonder  whether  justice  could  not  be  obtained 
more  cheaply.  What  is  the  use,  they  said,  of  laws, 
anyway?  Why  not  let  each  case,  which  is  now  lit- 
igated at  enormous  expense,  be  decided  by  neigh- 
bors? Why  should  two  people  who  disagree  have 
to  hire  special  advocates  and  go  through  all  the 
tedious  court  proceedings  in  order  to  settle  their 
quarrel?  If  so  many  cases  are  sent  to  a  referee, 
anyhow,  why  not  let  them  choose  their  own  referee, 
and  leave  the  whole  thing  to  him?  And  so  it  was, 
to  make  a  long  story  short,  that  after  prolonged 
discussion,  it  was  resolved  to  abolish  all  the  courts 
and  get  rid  of  the  judges  and  court  hangers-on." 

"But  what  of  the  criminal  courts?"  I  said. 
"  How  about  them?" 

"  That  gave  us  some  trouble,  and  we  solved  it 
by  abolishing  all  law,  at  one  fell  swoop.  We 
found  that  almost  all  of  what  we  called  crimes 
were  connected  with,  or  caused  by  two  things, 
property  and  passion,  and  a  considerable  part  of 
crimes  due  to  passion  we  found  to  be  really 
prompted  by  the  desire  for  property.  As  you  can 
see,  we  were  rapidly  approaching  what  you  would 
call  anarchy,  and  in  fact  this  is  where  we  ended. 
When  we  thought  we  had  settled  beyond  a  doubt 


ANARCHY  109 

that  all  crime  was  the  result  and  a  natural  and  in- 
evitable result  of  the  institution  of  private  prop- 
erty with  the  slight  exceptions  of  sporadic  cases  of 
physical  violence  caused  by  ungovernable  passion, 
by  general  agreement  we  did  away  with  the  whole 
thing,  entirely  abandoned  the  idea  that  one  man  or 
one  set  of  men  have  any  right,  except  that  of  might, 
to  direct  the  actions  of  any  other  man  and  tell  him 
what  he  may  do  and  what  he  must  not  do.  We 
determined  that  every  one  of  us  should  lead  the 
life  he  himself  thought  best,  and  that  no  other 
man  or  woman  should  attempt  to  coerce  his  ac- 
tions, except  in  their  own  self-defense." 

"  Sheer  anarchy,  as  you  say." 

"  Exactly.  It  was  a  long  time  before  things  ran 
smoothly,  but  we  have  been  living  in  this  way  now 
for  more  than  two  thousand  years,  and  have  noth- 
ing to  regret.  Indeed,  our  wise  men  tell  us  that 
our  abolition  of  all  such  unnatural  restrictions  and 
attainment  of  absolute  freedom  was  the  only  thing 
that  saved  our  people  from  relapsing  into  the  bar- 
barism that  has  been  the  fate  of  the  white  race  so 
often  through  the  ages." 

"  But  how  could  you  possibly  make  such  a  com- 
plete change  in  so  short  a  time?  " 

"  The  time  was  not  so  short.  It  was  many 
years  in  coming  and  our  preparations  were  per- 
fected   very    gradually.     And    when    the    change 


no    THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

finally  took  place  there  was  for  a  considerable  time 
much  tumult  and  disorder." 

"  It  seems  to  me  like  a  reversion  to  savagery." 

"  Do  we  strike  you  as  savages?  Do  you  not 
see  the  evidences  of  a  high  civilization  all  about 
you  here?  " 

"  And  yet,"  I  replied,  "  mankind  has  always 
emerged  from  a  primitive  savage  condition  by 
adopting  or  developing  some  kind  of  government 
by  law.  The  security  of  person  and  property  de- 
pends upon  proper  enforcement  of  laws  well  de- 
vised and  properly  enacted." 

"  That  is  the  ancient  theory,  and  it  seemed  at 
one  period  of  history  to  be  well  founded.  But  it 
is  not  strictly  true.  While  law  has  been  an  im- 
portant element  in  the  development  of  human 
civilization,  it  was  really  suited  to  only  one  stage 
in  the  evolution  of  the  race.  Under  its  regime  the 
human  race  advanced,  it  is  true,  and  probably  in 
consequence  of  the  invention  of  the  law.  But  the 
law  was  only  a  step,  and  when  its  operation  ceased 
to  be  advantageous,  when  it  became  a  clog  upon 
further  advancement,  it  was  discarded.  For,  after 
all,  what  is  the  law,  but  a  means  of  imposing  the 
will  of  one  man  upon  others,  or  of  a  community 
upon  its  members,  usually  a  majority  upon  a 
minority?  It  always  infringed  upon  the  inde- 
pendence of  the  person,  very  much  as  the  war  club 


ANARCHY  III 

of  a  savage  chief  maintained  his  sway.  The  law, 
after  all,  is  based  upon  force,  and  is  null  and  of  no 
effect  unless  there  is  physical  compulsion  back  of  it. 
The  progress  of  mankind  has  been  marked  all 
along  by  a  gradual  emancipation  from  the  rule  of 
physical  force.  From  the  brutal  dominion  of  the 
savage  chief  or  head-man  down  through  the  patri- 
archal head  of  the  family,  the  absolute  monarch, 
the  king,  the  parliaments,  the  legislature  under  uni- 
versal suffrage  in  a  simon  pure  democracy,  there 
has  been  a  constant,  undeviating  tendency  toward 
the  emancipation  of  man  from  external  control. 
The  entire  emancipation,  the  absolute  freedom  of 
the  individual  has  been  dreamed  of  by  many,  but 
attained  by  us  alone,  and  that  is  one  reason  out  of 
many  why  I  say  that  we  represent  at  the  present 
age  of  the  world  the  highest  type  of  civilization. 
Even  in  your  own  time  there  were  those  who 
struggled  blindly  toward  this  goal,  but  they  were 
few  and  far  apart,  and  out  of  sympathy  with  their 
surroundings,  so  that  they  accomplished  nothing. 
In  fact,  it  is  extremely  doubtful  whether  the  white 
race  will  ever  give  up  the  dreadful  delusion  that 
the  more  law  they  have  the  better  off  they  are. 
Law  is  their  panacea  for  all  social  ills,  but  actually, 
though  they  cannot  see  it,  it  is  only  a  soothing 
syrup,  a  narcotic  for  undeveloped  minds." 

"  Well,  we  will  let  that  pass,  but  I  am  curious  to 


112     THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

know  how  the  transition  was  effected  from  a  re- 
gime of  law  to  its  abolition." 

"  It  was  determined  upon  many  years  ahead, 
how  many  I  do  not  now  recollect,  but  my  impres- 
sion is  that  no  particular  date  for  the  change  was 
named,  but  it  was  simply  understood  that  people 
were  tired  of  their  chains  and  ready  to  throw  them 
off  as  soon  as  they  could.  It  was,  of  course,  an- 
ticipated that  when  all  laws,  courts,  police,  and  all 
restrictions  and  penalties  affecting  personal  liberty 
were  abolished,  there  would  be  great  turmoil  and 
distress  until  things  settled  down.  Old  beliefs 
and  habits  would  for  a  time  still  sway  the  actions 
of  a  large  number  of  people.  Old  ideas  of  money 
and  property  would  hold  for  a  while,  and  the  poor- 
est of  the  community,  it  was  to  be  expected,  would 
join  in  a  general  looting  of  persons  and  premises. 
And  it  was  so.  But  when  they  found  that  they 
could  do  nothing  with  their  plunder,  that  there 
was  no  buying  or  selling,  and  that  they  were  simply 
accumulating  a  lot  of  stuff  that  they  could  not  use, 
that  they  had  all  they  wanted  to  eat  and  drink, 
besides  clothing  and  shelter,  without  stealing  or  in- 
juring anyone  else,  the  disturbances  gradually 
ceased.  It  was  soon  found  that  there  was  absolute 
equality  of  privilege,  that  there  were  no  more  rich 
or  poor,  and  that  happiness  and  contentment  lay 
in  looking  after  oneself  and  leaving  others  to  do 


ANARCHY  113 

the  same. 

"  Our  preparation  for  the  transition  period  con- 
sisted largely  In  teaching  the  Ignorant  what  was  to 
come.  The  government  constructed  some  large 
warehouses  at  convenient  points,  where  supplies  of 
all  the  necessaries  of  life  could  be  stored,  where 
any  person  was  at  liberty  to  go  and  help  himself  to 
anything  he  wanted.  It  was  urged  with  all  pos- 
sible vehemence  that  on  the  fateful  day  everyone 
should  continue  for  a  time,  until  matters  adjusted 
themselves,  to  do  whatever  he  had  been  doing,  and 
to  live  as  he  had  been  living,  only  bearing  all  the 
time  In  mind  the  fact  that  everything  was  done 
for  the  benefit  of  all  at  first,  until  individualism 
could  be  made  complete.  There  was  to  be  no 
money,  no  medium  of  exchange,  and  no  private 
property,  which,  by  the  way,  always  leads  to  the 
eventual  bankruptcy  of  nations.  The  factory  em- 
ploye was  to  work,  the  artisan  to  ply  his  trade, 
the  professional  man  to  give  his  service,  all  without 
fee.  Everyone  who  lacked  food  or  clothing  was 
to  procure  it  in  the  shop,  and  the  shopkeeper  was  to 
supply  it  without  compensation." 

"  In  other  words  there  was  wholesale  confisca- 
tion of  private  property." 

"  Rather  a  wholesale  and  universal  contribution 
of  private  property,  for  the  change  In  personal  re- 
lations had  been  thoroughly  discussed  and  what 


114    THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

was  done  was  done  with  the  consent  of  all." 

"  Do  you  mean  to  say  that  all  who  owned  prop- 
erty of  any  kind  gave  it  over  to  the  general  use 
voluntarily?     That  is  not  conceivable." 

"  Nevertheless,  that  is  precisely  what  occurred. 
But  as  a  matter  of  fact  no  one  had  to  sacrifice  any- 
thing. The  richest  men,  those  who  had  to  give 
up  the  most,  according  to  your  ideas,  still  had  good 
food,  clothing  and  shelter,  and  that  was  all  a  man 
needs  and  all  they  had  before.  Whatever  they 
possessed  over  and  above  this  was  superfluity,  a 
pure  accumulation  of  things  they  could  not  use  and 
kept  merely  because  they  did  not  know  what  to  do 
with  them.  What  can  the  tradesman  do  with  the 
contents  of  his  shop?  He  cannot  eat  all  the 
groceries  nor  wear  all  the  clothing.  It  is  of  no  use 
at  all  to  him  unless  he  can  exchange  for  something 
else,  money  it  used  to  be.  But  if  there  is  no 
money,  no  medium  of  exchange,  and  he  can  pro- 
cure all  he  wants  of  other  things  by  stepping  into 
his  neighbor's  shop,  the  best  he  can  do  with  his 
own  stock  is  to  distribute  It  among  those  who  do 
want  it,  is  it  not?  " 

"  But  the  luxuries  of  the  wealthy?  " 
"  Not  only  useless,  but  injurious." 
"  Do  you  mean  to  say  that  your  people,  all  of  a 
sudden,  became  contented  to  live  on  plain  food, 
wear  coarse  clothing  and  sleep  on  bare  boards,  just 


ANARCHY  115 

because  some  cranky  individuals  thought  it  bet- 
ter? " 

"  You  willfully  misunderstand,  I  am  afraid. 
No  one  suffered  from  privation.  On  the  contrary, 
those  who  had  been  at  the  bottom  and  were  all  the 
time  housed  in  kennels  and  half  starved,  found 
themselves,  of  a  sudden,  provided  with  warmth 
and  shelter,  good  clothing  and  good  food.  There 
has  always  been  enough  of  the  necessities  of  life 
in  the  world  to  make  everyone  comfortable,  but 
they  had  a  way  of  drifting  into  the  possession  of 
individuals,  who  refused  to  give  them  up  excepting 
on  their  own  conditions.  You  can  see,  as  you  look 
about  you  here,  that  we  are  all  comfortably  housed, 
well  fed,  decently  clothed  and  contented.  What 
more  ought  man  to  want?  " 

"  Some  people  enjoy  luxuries,"  I  remarked 
rather  feebly. 

"  They  can  have  them,"  said  my  host.  "  I  will 
show  you  our  warehouses  soon,  and  you  will  ac- 
knowledge, I  am  sure,  that  every  want  can  be  sup- 
plied from  them." 

"  Where  do  all  these  things  come  from,  that  fill 
your  warehouses?  You  have  no  commerce,  and 
with  no  government  and  no  money  in  circulation, 
no  one  is  obliged  to  work  for  a  living.  Who 
makes  the  things?  " 

"  That  is  one  of  the  fallacies  of  the  old  order, 


ii6    THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

the  Idea  that  no  one  will  work  unless  he  is  com- 
pelled to  by  an  overseer  or  master,  or  to  satisfy 
his  hunger  or  procure  himself  shelter.  There 
never  was  a  greater  mistake.  Work  is  not  a  curse, 
but  a  blessing.  The  idle  man  is  in  misery.  Few 
men  are  good  company  for  themselves.  They  al- 
ways seek  distraction,  and  the  desire  to  occupy 
mind  and  body  is  so  irresistible  that  some  of  our 
cleverest  men  and  women  occupy  their  time  mainly 
in  devising  employment  for  others.  Men  have 
different  tastes  and  choose  the  form  of  labor  that 
suits  their  natural  aptitudes.  There  is  variety 
enough  to  produce  all  we  want  or  need.  At  least 
after  two  thousand  years  and  more,  we  still  find 
it  so." 

"  But  you  surely  have  found  that  men  naturally 
shun  the  disagreeable  occupations,  when  there  is 
no  inducement  like  that  of  enhanced  remuneration 
to  entice  them." 

"  You  beg  the  question.  There  are  no  dis- 
agreeable occupations  with  us.  No  man  would 
select  an  occupation  that  was  disagreeable  to  him. 
But,  many  men,  many  minds.  What  is  disagree- 
able to  one  man  is  not  so  to  another.  Personally, 
I  detest  grubbing  in  the  garden,  but  my  wife  is 
enamored  of  it,  and  would  hate  to  sit  in  the  Cam- 
era, as  I  do,  and  watch,  or  make  long  journeys  to 
foreign  parts  to  spy  out  the  land." 


ANARCHY  117 

"  But  such  things  as  scavengers,  for  instance," 
I  said,  with  some  hesitation. 

"  That  never  troubles  us.  We  fertilize  our 
own  ground,  and  any  disagreeable  excess  is  easily 
disposed  of  by  the  route  taken  by  your  revolver," 
and  he  smiled  benignantly. 

"  But  what  do  you  do  with  your  criminals?  "  I 
asked  again,  not  well  satisfied  with  the  previous 
answer  to  the  question. 

"  We  have  none.  How  can  there  be  a  criminal, 
when  there  is  no  man-made  law  to  break?  There 
is  no  temptation  to  rob  or  murder  or  cheat,  for 
everyone  can  procure  anything  he  wants  from  the 
public  stores." 

"  But  you  must  have  quarrels  and  your  people 
must  kill  each  other  sometimes." 

"  That  is  really  the  only  crime,  as  you  w^ould 
call  it,  that  we  have  amongst  us.  Once  in  a  while 
a  man  will  kill  another,  but  such  cases  occur  sel- 
dom, for  even  in  your  society,  murders  are  gener- 
ally caused  by  money.  Those  we  have  are  due  to 
sexual  jealousy,  and  are  very  rare  because  we 
marry  early.  Even  among  you,  I  believe,  such 
murders  were  generally  condoned.  Was  there 
not  something  called  *  the  unwritten  law  '  in  vogue 
in  your  time?  " 

"  Yes,"  I  replied;  "  it  is  true  that  murders  for 
that  cause  were  often  unpunished." 


ii8     THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

"  Punishment  would  not  prevent  them  anyway, 
and  we  look  upon  those  rare  killings  as  purely  per- 
sonal matters,  and  not  as  affecting  the  community." 

"  You  mention  early  marriages  as  tending  to 
prevent  such  crimes." 

"  Yes.  Our  children  mate  early,  and  we  con- 
sider it  better  so.  They  have  no  problem  of  sub- 
sistence before  them,  and  we  accept  the  principle 
that  in  this  very  important  matter  Nature  is  the 
best  guide.  We  believe  that  the  time  of  life  when 
the  sexes  are  drawn  toward  each  other  by  the 
strongest  ties,  when  each  idealizes  the  other,  and 
they  feel  they  cannot  live  apart,  is  the  best  time 
for  them  to  come  together  in  a  life  compact.  Thi^ 
is  usually  between  sixteen  and  twenty-five,  and  few 
wait  as  late  as  that.  They  are  young  and  their 
natures  are  plastic,  so  that  they  easily  and  natu- 
rally accommodate  themselves  to  each  other's 
idiosyncrasies,  and  their  lives  readily  merge  into 
one  current,  which  flows  steadily  and  evenly  for 
the  remainder  of  their  lives." 

"  But  the  offspring  of  such  young  parents  is  apt 
to  be  weakly  or  worthless,  is  it  not?  " 

"  By  no  means.  We  find  that  when  the  natural 
impulse  to  mate  is  most  imperious,  the  best  results 
follow.  Why,  one  of  your  great  men  of  antiquity. 
Napoleon,  was  the  son  of  a  mother  of  eighteen 
and  a  father  of  twenty-three." 


ANARCHY  119 

"Well,  how  about  the  children?  Where  are 
your  schools,  or  do  you  think  that  education  would 
be  too  much  like  discipline,  like  coercion?  "  said  I, 
with  a  lame  attempt  to  be  sarcastic. 

"  Absolute  individual  freedom  is  for  those  who 
can  use  it,  without  abusing  it  —  that  is,  for  adults. 
Up  to  a  certain  age,  children  are  savages.  You 
know  that.  They  have  to  be  treated  as  such  and 
trained  at  first  by  the  compulsion  of  physical  force, 
gradually  diminishing  and  differing  in  the  method 
of  application  as  they  grow  older.  Practically 
every  child  has  to  pass  again  through  the  same  dis- 
cipline that  the  race  did,  and  by  virtually  the  same 
stages." 

"  And  your  schools?  " 

"  We  have  none.  Our  children  are  educated  at 
home.  Of  course  we  recognize  the  fact  that  some 
men  and  women  are  naturally  fitted  by  inclination 
and  abihty  to  be  teachers  of  the  young,  and  such 
are  usually  willing  to  aid  in  the  instruction  of  their 
neighbors.  In  this  way  a  single  man  or  woman 
may  have  five  or  six  children  besides  her  own  to 
whom  she  imparts  instruction  during  a  part  of  the 
day,  but  it  is  the  rule  that  parents  teach  their  own 
children." 

"  Suppose  a  young  couple  wish  to  mate.  How 
do  they  find  a  home?  " 

"  If  none  is  vacant,  they  live  with  parents  or 


I20    THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

friends,  wherever  there  may  be  room  for  them, 
until  a  house  is  ready.  They  add  nothing  to  the 
work  of  a  household  but  rather  assist,  and  of  course 
there  is  no  expense.  But  there  is  usually  some 
house  they  can  take.  Houses  are  going  up  all  the 
time.  The  masons  and  carpenters  must  keep  busy, 
or  they  die  of  ennui.  There  is  a  house  in  process 
of  erection  that  we  have  just  passed." 

"  Yes,  I  noticed  it.  By  the  way,  I  saw  last  night 
that  there  were  no  doors  or  windows  in  your  house. 
How  do  you  keep  warm  on  cool  nights,  and  how 
do  you  insure  privacy?  " 

"  We  have  arrangements  for  closing  the  doors 
and  windows,  when  necessary.  Just  at  this  season 
we  are  more  comfortable  without  them.  As  to 
privacy  we  use  screens  mostly.  No  one  follows 
another  behind  a  screen  without  permission  to  do 
so. 

"  And  heating?  You  must  find  artificial  heat 
necessary  at  certain  times  in  the  year." 

"  Yes.  Our  heating  apparatus  is  beneath  the 
house,  the  walls  of  which  are  hollow,  so  that  the 
air,  which  has  been  warmed  by  radiation,  keeps 
the  walls  and  floors  comfortable  in  any  weather. 
The  heat  is  produced  by  the  electric  current,  and  is, 
of  course,  produced  with  little  waste." 

"  And  you  raise  most  of  your  household  sup- 
plies on  your  own  premises?  " 


ANARCHY  121 

"  Oh,  no,  not  at  all.  We  all  have  our  gardens 
and  raise  a  good  deal  of  food  in  that  way.  Some 
have  poultry,  for  we  use  many  eggs.  Our  milk 
which  is  a  staple  food  with  us,  especially  for  the 
children,  is  goat's  milk.  We  raise  no  cattle,  for 
we  prefer  the  milk  of  the  goat,  and  cattle  are  dirty 
in  their  habits,  and  more  difficult  to  care  for,  and 
the  coarse  red  meat  is  distasteful  even  to  those  who 
are  meat  eaters.  Sheep  are  bred  for  wool  and 
mutton,  and  our  grains  are  wheat  and  corn." 

"  But  if  you  are  so  prosperous  as  you  appear  to 
be,  and  never  troubled  by  poverty  or  lack  of  food 
and  shelter,  I  should  suppose  your  population 
would  increase  so  rapidly  that  by  this  time,  several 
thousand  years  you  say,  the  country  would  be  over- 
crowded." 

"  It  might  seem  so,  but  such  is  not  the  case. 
Our  families  are  not  large.  Nature,  somehow, 
attends  to  that.  When  there  is  a  great  waste  of 
life,  as  there  is  among  you,  from  war  and  disease, 
the  gaps  so  to  speak  are  rapidly  filled,  but  when 
there  is  no  waste,  the  increase  is  slow.  Now  and 
then,  to  be  sure,  we  find  ourselves  forced  to  occupy 
new  territor}^  but  we  try  to  encroach  as  little  as 
may  be  upon  land  already  occupied,  and  spread 
ourselves  in  the  wilderness.  We  can  soon  make 
any  land  productive,  and  when  there  is  no  attempt 
to  play  the  dog  in  the  manger  and  accumulate  un- 


122     THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

necessary  holdings,  the  requirements  of  a  com- 
munity are  not  large.  Half  an  acre  of  land  is  am- 
ple for  a  family  of  five,  and  that  accommodates  six 
thousand  to  the  square  mile,  or  60,000,000  in  a 
territory  100  miles  square." 

"  More,  I  suppose,  in  the  cities?  "  I  inquired. 

"  We  have  no  cities.  At  the  time  we  aban- 
doned the  old  form  of  civilization,  we  found  our- 
selves burdened  with  all  the  vices  and  inconven- 
iences of  that  civilization.  But  when  living  be- 
came easy  under  the  new  conditions,  people  began 
to  remove  from  the  crowded  places  into  the  open 
country  and  the  cities  gradually  became  depopu- 
lated and  were  finally  torn  up  by  the  roots,  so  to 
speak,  and  utterly  eradicated.  Most  of  the  ma- 
terial used  in  their  construction  could  be  utilized 
elsewhere,  and  what  could  not,  was  destroyed,  and 
the  city  sites  turned  into  cultivable  land." 

"  But  about  your  population.  Do  you  make 
any  attempt  towards  scientific  breeding,  the  scien- 
tific mating  of  the  young  people?  " 

Here  he  came  nearer  laughing  outright  than  I 
had  ever  seen  him,  but  controlled  himself,  as  he 
answered: 

"  No,  indeed.  Nature  is  the  best  mingler  of 
bloods.  Under  our  conditions  of  life,  we  find  that 
the  indefinable  instincts  which  draw  two  together 
in  indissoluble  bonds  are   almost  unerring.     No 


ANARCHY  123 

intermeddling  of  ours  could  improve  on  the  work 
of  Nature." 

While  he  was  speaking  it  flashed  upon  my  mind 
that  the  whole  idea  was  a  foolish  one.  What 
scientific  commission  or  bureau  of  eugenics,  for 
example,  I  thought,  who  wished  to  produce  a  man 
of  profound  philosophic  intellect,  whose  teachings 
were  to  revolutionize  the  thought  of  the  civilized 
world  and  be  felt  for  thousands  of  years  after  his 
death,  would  ever  have  chosen  for  his  progenitors 
an  obscure  marble  cutter  and  a  common  midwife, 
and  who,  in  planning  for  the  birth  of  an  astounding 
genius  in  war  and  statecraft,  who  should  juggle 
with  thrones  and  rock  Europe  to  her  foundations, 
would  ever  have  chosen  as  mates,  a  small  country 
lawyer  and  his  peasant  wife  in  an  isolated  corner 
of  the  world? 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE   CAMERA 

WE  had  been  walking  for  a  time  in  silence, 
when  it  occurred  to  me  to  ask  something 
more  about  the  occupations  of  this  extraordinary 
people,  and  so  I  said,  rather  abruptly: 

"  But  how  about  your  occupations?  Are  there 
tradesmen  among  you,  doctors,  clergymen,  arti- 
sans, laborers,  and  all  the  variety  that  is  found  with 
us?" 

"  Yes  and  no.  Of  course,  as  we  have  no  such 
thing  as  property  interests  and  no  medium  of  ex- 
change, we  have  no  lawyers  and  no  tradesmen,  or 
merchants.  There  are  a  few  physicians,  but  they 
are  mostly  surgeons,  as  there  is  almost  no  disease 
among  us,  but  of  course  there  always  will  be  acci- 
dents, though  even  they  are  few.  If  a  new  need 
arises,  there  is  always  someone  found  who  can 
supply  it,  but  our  wants  are  limited  as  compared 
with  yours." 

*'  And  there  are  no  lazy  ones  among  you,  whom 
the  others  have  to  work  to  support?  " 

"  Now  and  then  one,  but  such  a  person  is  looked 
124 


THE  CAMERA  125 

upon  as  abnormal  and  is  simply  tolerated.  It  is 
natural  for  men  to  work.  How  otherwise  are 
they  to  occupy  their  time?  All  animals  suffer 
from  ennui  if  they  have  nothing  to  do.  Most  of 
them  have  to  work  all  the  time  to  get  food  enough, 
and  even  those  who  find  their  sustenance  everywhere 
under  their  feet,  like  the  grazing  animals,  have  to 
take  considerable  time  in  shifting  from  one  graz- 
ing ground  to  another,  and  when  they  have  not 
that  to  do,  occupy  their  small  minds  in  chewing  the 
cud.  Even  the  laziest  of  your  domestic  animals, 
the  house  cat,  is  either  busy  hunting  for  scraps  of 
food  to  eat,  or  for  mice,  or  attending  to  her  toilet, 
and  if  these  all  fail  her,  she  goes  to  sleep.  There 
can  be  no  such  thing  for  any  living  animal  as  an 
agreeable  lack  of  anything  to  do.  The  advantage 
we  have  over  you,  in  this  respect,  is  that  none  of 
us  is  tied  down  to  any  particular  hours,  or  is 
obliged  to  work  when  he  is  weary  and  needs  rest, 
or  is  under  the  dictation  of  an  employer.  There 
are  no  employers  or  employes.  We  do  things  for 
one  another,  but  it  is  always  a  matter  of  friendly 
good  will.  When  anyone  makes  anything  that  is 
not  in  immediate  demand  he  takes  it  to  a  central 
warehouse  and  leaves  it  there  for  others  to  look 
over.  And  one  result  of  our  voluntary  labor  you 
must  already  have  noticed  in  my  house,  and  that 
is  the  genuine  and  finished  quality  of  all  our  work." 


126     THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

"  Yes,"  I  replied,  "  I  noticed  particularly  the 
exquisite  joining  of  the  stones  in  the  wall  of  my 
room,  and  the  fine  workmanship  of  the  bath." 

"  Exactly.  Our  men  and  women  have  plenty  of 
time,  and  everything  they  do  is  done  as  well  as  they 
can  possibly  do  it.  There  is  no  incentive,  as  there 
is  with  you,  for  cheating  or  scamping  in  their 
work.  Each  man  takes  a  pride  in  doing  his  best, 
and  a  large  part  of  our  enjoyment  in  life  rests  upon 
that  fact,  that  we  can  manipulate  refractory  ma- 
terial as  it  comes  raw  from  Nature,  and  alter  it 
into  such  exquisite  forms  as  we  are  capable  of. 
There  is  nothing  more  satisfactory  in  life  than  the 
finishing  any  piece  of  work  so  finely  as  to  arouse 
the  admiration  of  all  who  see  it." 

By  this  time  we  had  arrived  at  the  entrance  of 
the  building  he  had  already  spoken  about  as  the 
Camera.  It  was  low  and  round,  perhaps  fifty  feet 
in  diameter  and  ten  or  twelve  in  height,  though 
the  roof  rose  in  the  form  of  a  flattened  cone, 
several  feet  higher.  We  passed  through  the  door, 
which  closed  behind  us,  and  I  found  myself  in  a 
large  circular  apartment,  lighted  through  the  roof, 
and  with  the  inner  surface  of  the  wall  sloping 
to  the  floor,  towards  the  center  of  the  room. 
While  the  upper  diameter  of  the  room  was  per- 
haps forty-five  feet,  the  bottom,  at  the  floor,  ap- 
peared to  me  to  be  not  more  than  thirty,  or  possibly 


THE  CAMERA  127 

twenty-five.  In  the  center  was  a  large  round  table, 
and  three  or  four  chairs  completed  the  furniture  of 
the  place.  The  surface  of  the  wall  was  stained  or 
painted,  or  composed  of  a  colored  material,  the 
hue  of  which  it  is  difficult  to  describe.  I  should 
say  it  was  a  sort  of  grayish  blue,  but  it  produced 
a  curious  effect  of  haze.  It  did  not  look  like  a 
solid  surface,  but  like  an  atmosphere.  This  seems 
a  little  absurd,  but  it  is  the  only  way  I  can  describe 
it.  While  I  was  still  puzzling  over  it,  my  guide 
addressed  me. 

"  Pray,  seat  yourself.  I  have  called  this  room 
a  camera,  because  that  seemed  to  be  the  easiest 
way  to  describe  its  purpose  to  you.  As  a  fact, 
however,  it  is  not  a  camera,  for  the  effects  you  will 
see  are  not  produced  by  optical  means,  that  is,  by 
lenses  or  mirrors,  excepting  in  a  far-fetched  sense. 
This  is  my  workshop,  or  office,  as  watcher,  or  out- 
post, of  the  community.  There  are  many  other 
similar  ones  on  our  border,  for,  unfortunately, 
although  we  are  at  peace  among  ourselves,  our 
neighbors  are  not  always  as  considerate  as  they 
might  be,  and  especially  your  countrymen,  who 
bother  us  a  good  deal  now  and  then.  As  I  told 
you  before,  they  are  preparing  an  attack  upon  us, 
and  from  all  we  can  learn,  it  will  come  in  this  di- 
rection. It  is  my  first  experience  in  such  matters, 
although  I  am  eighty-five  years  of  age." 


128     THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

"  Elghty-fiv^e,"  I  exclaimed.  "  You  cannot  be 
more  than  forty." 

"  Nevertheless,  I  am  eighty-five.  We  live  long. 
Why  should  we  not?  Our  weakly  stock  was 
weeded  out  thousands  of  years  ago,  when  we  rid 
ourselves  of  the  last  trace  of  white  blood,  and 
now  we  are  born  strong  and  healthy,  and  live  sim- 
ply, have  no  disease  among  us,  and,  barring  acci- 
dents, complete  our  natural  term  of  life.  Here 
comes  one  older  still,"  and  he  turned  toward  the 
door,  which  opened  to  give  entrance  to  a  man 
somewhat  bent  at  the  shoulders,  and  white  as  to 
hair  and  beard,  but  still  apparently  in  vigorous 
health. 

He  advanced  slowly  and  exchanged  greetings 
with  my  host,  with  a  passing  glance  at  me.  They 
talked  together  for  some  minutes  in  subdued  tones, 
and  then  the  negro  turned  to  me. 

"  My  friend  who  has  just  come  in,"  he  said,  "  is 
one  of  our  oldest  citizens,"  and  turning  to  him 
again  asked  him  a  question.  This  was  the  first 
of  the  new  or  modern  English  I  had  been  able  to 
catch,  and  sounded  like  this: 

"  Hwarldje?  "  which  I  take  to  be  a  corruption 
of  "  How  old  are  you?  " 

The  answer  I  did  not  get,  for  it  was  mumbled 
in  a  very  thick  and  somewhat  tremulous  voice,  and 
evidently  contained  much  more  than  a  simple  state- 


THE  CAMERA  129 

ment  of  age.  I  did,  however,  hear  something  that 
sounded  Hke  "  Unenti-ee." 

My  host  or  guide  turned  to  me  and  said  quietly : 

"  He  is  one  hundred  and  ninety-three  years  old. 
He  is  failing  physically,  though  not  mentally,  and 
will  not  be  with  us  much  longer.  But  he  is  wise, 
experienced  and  skillful  and  will  have  charge  of 
our  preparations  to  receive  the  onslaught  of  your 
countrymen.     That  is  why  he  is  here." 

I  sat  dumbfounded,  though  I  had  already  wit- 
nessed so  many  wonders  that  I  had  ceased  to  be 
incredulous.  Facts  are  brutal  things,  and  I  could 
not  hold  out  against  the  crushing  impression  of 
what  I  had  gone  through.  So  I  sat  in  a  comfort- 
able seat  and  looked  on  to  see  what  the  negroes 
would  proceed  to  do. 

My  friend  went  around  the  room,  manipulating 
something  I  did  not  clearly  distinguish,  but  he  had 
the  air  of  moving  switches  and  pressing  buttons 
along  the  junction  of  wall  and  floor.  When  he 
had  completed  the  circuit  of  the  apartment  he 
returned  to  the  center  of  the  building,  seated  him- 
self beside  me  and  bending  down  turned  a  knob 
which  projected  slightly  from  the  flooring  imme- 
diately beneath  the  table.  Then  he  arranged  some 
maps  and  charts  that  were  lying  upon  the  table 
and  the  two  began  to  scrutinize  them  with  great 
care,  and  carry  on  a  conversation  in  low  tones. 


I30    THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

They  might  just  as  well  have  spoken  up  or  even 
shouted,  for  I  could  not  understand  a  word  they 
said.  And  yet  it  sounded  like  English,  the  cadence 
was  the  same,  the  inflections  of  the  voice  and  even 
the  sound  of  the  words,  so  that  it  gave  me  the  im- 
pression that  their  peculiar  pronunciation  was  the 
only  thing  that  prevented  me  from  understanding. 
Perhaps  this  was  because  I  thought  I  caught  a  fre- 
quent "  duh,"  which  I  took  for  "  the,"  and  also  a 
frequent  copula,  as  I  took  it,  sounding  like  "  nh," 
which  I  thought  might  be  our  "  and."  But  all 
speculations  of  this  sort  were  speedily  banished 
from  my  mind  when  I  became  suddenly  aware  of 
a  curious  and  wonderful  change  that  was  slowly 
developing  in  the  walls  of  the  room.  Out  of  the 
haze  which  I  have  described  already  there  began 
to  appear  outlines  of  figures,  buildings,  hills  and 
other  objects  belonging  to  out-of-doors.  This 
magic-lantern  change  went  on  rapidly  —  in  fact, 
the  whole  thing  occurred,  after  the  central  knob 
in  the  floor  had  been  turned,  in  much  less  time  than 
it  has  taken  me  to  write  about  it.  The  entire  wall 
of  the  room  in  a  few  moments  became  a  pano- 
rama, evidently  a  reproduction,  or  representation 
of  the  surrounding  country,  for  in  one  place  I 
could  distinguish  the  house  where  I  had  spent  the 
previous  night  and  the  hillside,  where  I  had  been 
shown  the  wonders  of  this  new  country  and  com- 


THE  CAMERA  131 

pelled  to  realize  how  limited  was  my  own  knowl- 
edge, how  poor  my  capacity,  and  how  helpless  I 
and  my  countrymen  must  be  In  any  conflict  with 
these  negroes  and  their  terrible  and  mysterious 
powers  of  offense  and  defense.  A  vast  landscape 
lay  open  before  me.  It  was  as  If  I  were  on  the 
summit  of  a  lofty  and  Isolated  mountain  top.  By 
turning  I  could  look  In  every  direction,  and  every- 
thing was  displayed  In  such  perfection  of  detail 
and  coloring  that  I  was  entranced  with  the  view. 
In  one  direction  I  could  see  the  low  range  of  hills 
over  which  the  boy  had  guided  me  the  day  before 
and  beyond  the  open  plain  through  which  I  had 
been  wandering.  At  the  extreme  verge  was  a 
hazy  atmosphere  which  I  was  unable  to  penetrate, 
but  it  seemed  to  be,  and  I  presume  was,  many  miles 
away.  To  the  right  of  this  section  of  the  view 
was  the  sheet  of  water  I  had  seen  on  my  left  while 
I  was  walking  across  the  level  plain,  and  I  could 
plainly  perceive  that  It  was  a  large  lake,  whose  fur- 
ther shore  was  bordered  with  a  thick  forest.  The 
view  In  other  directions  seemed  to  be  virtually  a 
reproduction  of  that  in  our  Immediate  vicinity, 
with  which  I  was  already  familiar,  hundreds  of 
small  houses  all  standing  by  themselves  and  each 
surrounded  by  greenery,  some  large  patches  free 
from  buildings  and  of  varying  shades  of  green, 
which  I  took  to  be  fields  of  grain  or  other  vege- 


132     THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

table  produce  growing  on  a  large  scale,  innumer- 
able little  domestic  gardens  near  the  houses,  peo- 
ple moving  about,  children  playing,  and  here  and 
there  at  considerable  distances  apart,  large  white 
structures  which  I  supposed  to  be  public  buildings 
of  some  sort  like  the  large  one  close  by  which  I 
was  soon  to  visit.  I  could  also  detect  numerous 
floating  objects  in  the  air,  which  I  soon  perceived 
to  be  some  kind  of  flying  machines,  although  dif- 
ferent from  any  with  which  I  was  familiar,  I  had 
already  seen  some  of  them  hurrying  about  while 
I  was  talking  with  my  host  on  the  hillside,  but  had 
taken  them  for  aeroplanes  of  the  sort  I  had  known, 
for  I  was  so  busy  with  other  matters  that  I  had  not 
paid  any  special  attention  to  them.  Now,  how- 
ever, I  saw  that  they  were  decidedly  not  aero- 
planes such  as  I  had  known,  for  wings  or  side 
planes  were  absent,  and  their  general  appearance 
as  I  viewed  them  from  a  distance  was  that  of  large 
armchairs,  with  a  pointed  shield  in  front  and  a 
horizontal  plane  underneath.  I  could  not  at  the 
time  distinguish  propellers  or  any  motor  apparatus, 
but  that  was  probably  because  I  was  looking  at 
them  from  underneath  and  any  mechanical  works 
would  be  hidden  by  the  extended  plane  at  the  base. 
While  I  was  occupied  in  picking  out  the  details 
of  the  landscape,  the  two  negroes  were  busily  at 
work  at  the  table,  where  they  pored  over  the  maps 


THE  CAMERA  133 

and  drawings,  and  made  marks  upon  them  here 
and  there,  frequently  looking  and  pointing  at  the 
beautiful  wall  picture,  and  talking  earnestly  all  the 
time,  with  many  nods  and  gesticulations.  Pres- 
ently they  seemed  to  have  arrived  at  some  decision 
and  the  old  negro,  with  a  touch  of  the  hand,  turned 
and  left  the  building  as  slowly  and  silently  as  he 
had  entered  it,  paying  no  more  attention  to  me 
than  if  I  were  a  grasshopper.  Then  my  friend 
turned  to  me. 

"  Well,  that  is  settled.  In  an  hour  or  two  I 
must  start  for  the  Americas,  and  you  had  better 
accompany  me.  Then  if  you  wish  to  remain 
among  your  kindred  you  can  do  so.  If  you  would 
like  to  return  with  me,  you  can  also  do  that.  I 
should  prefer  to  have  you  come  back  for  a  short 
visit,  in  order  that  you  may  witness  the  actual 
operation  of  our  means  of  defense,  for  our  only 
object  in  harboring  you  for  these  few  days  has 
been  to  enable  you  to  go  back  among  your  coun- 
trymen as  a  missionary  to  turn  them,  if  you  can, 
from  any  thought  of  conquest  on  this  hemisphere. 
Let  them  know  that  they  have  done  with  the  Old 
World  and  the  Old  World  has  done  with  them,  and 
needs  them  no  more." 

"  The  word  missionary,"  I  said,  "  brings  another 
thing  to  my  mind.  You  have  said  that  you  adhere 
to  the  Christian  religion,  but  I  see  no  indication 


134     THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

of  churches  anywhere  In  this  landscape.  How  is 
that?" 

"  We  have  no  church  buildings,"  he  said  with  a 
smile,  "  for  they  are  not  necessary.  Churches 
among  your  people  are  simply  clubs  with  philan- 
thropic annexes.  Our  worship  is  mostly  private. 
It  seems  to  us  more  in  accordance  with  the  teaching 
and  the  example  of  our  Master.  Those  of  us  who 
are  more  expansive  in  their  spiritual  aspirations, 
more  social,  meet  in  each  other's  houses,  like  the 
first  Christians,  two  or  three  together,  you  know. 
We  have  no  priests,  no  ministers,  no  expounders, 
no  intermediary  between  ourselves  and  our  God." 

"  But  what  takes  the  place  among  you  of  all  our 
church  activities,  our  hospitals,  our  visiting  of  the 
sick,  and  poor,  our  parish  schools,  and  the  like?  " 

"  None  of  these  agencies  are  needed  among  us. 
You  forget  that  we  are  a  healthy  people,  in  body 
and  soul.  These  agencies  you  speak  of  are  all 
symptoms  of  social  disease.  There  is  no  poverty 
amongst  us,  very  little  illness,  orphan  children  are 
rare  and  easily  cared  for  by  neighbors,  and  widows 
can  always  look  out  for  themselves.  No,  we  need 
no  churches.  They  would  soon  give  rise  to  sects, 
to  organized  associations  of  dissenters,  and  that 
would  lead  to  quarrels  and  discord,  which  we  have 
happily  been  rid  of  for  hundreds  of  years.  Now 
that  our  relation  to  our  God  is  looked  upon  as  a 


THE  CAMERA  135 

sacred  personal  matter,  no  one  tries  to  impose  his 
finespun  theories  upon  anyone  else  and  there  is  no 
such  thing  as  religious  discord.  All  history  warns 
us  against  allowing  it  to  spring  up  again.  Your 
race,  the  white  race,  by  the  way,  have  never,  with 
rare  exceptions,  been  practical  Christians.  Chris- 
tianity with  the  mass  of  them  is  and  always  has 
been  purely  theoretical." 

"  Well,"  I  said,  "  we  will  let  that  go.  But  tell 
me  how  you  produce  this  wonderful  effect.  This 
picture,  what  is  it,  and  how  comes  it  here?  " 

"  It  is  partly  an  electrical  and  partly  a  magnetic 
device.  You  doubtless  noticed  —  in  fact,  I  think 
you  have  spoken  about  them  —  the  small  hemi- 
spherical elevations  near  the  foot  of  the  range  of 
hills  over  which  you  came.  It  is  done  through 
them." 

"  Oh,  yes,"  said  I,  "  and  the  small  disc-like  spots 
I  saw  on  their  surface  act  like  the  lens  of  a  camera. 
I  see." 

"  Well,  not  exactly  that.  They  have  something 
to  do  with  it,  yes,  but  not  in  the  way  you  mean. 
There  is  nothing  of  the  lens  about  them.  You 
could  not  understand  if  I  attempted  to  explain 
their  working  to  you.  So  we  shall  have  to  let 
that  pass." 

He  began  making  the  circuit  of  the  room  again, 
with  his  switch  turning  and  curious  manipulations 


136    THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

and  then  returning  to  me  stooped  and  turned  the 
center  knob.     The  landscape  began  to  fade. 

"If  you  return  with  me  from  the  other  side,  this 
is  the  spot  where  we  shall  remain  during  the  com- 
ing conflict,"  he  said.  "  Here  we  shall  watch  and 
wait.  But  now  we  must  go,  and  I  regret  to  say 
that  we  have  not  too  much  time  before  our  de- 
parture." 

So  we  emerged  from  the  building.  A  backward 
glance  showed  me  that  the  beautiful  wall  picture 
had  entirely  disappeared,  and  the  room  was  the 
same  as  when  we  entered  it. 

"  I  must  show  you  our  library  and  store  house," 
he  said,  "  and  then  we  will  get  ready  for  our  jour- 
ney." 


CHAPTER  XII 

A    BIT   OF    HISTORY 

BY  this  time  we  were  quite  near  the  fine  large 
white  building  I  had  seen  from  the  hillside, 
and  I  was  able  to  examine  it  more  closely.  It  was 
a  splendid  structure,  there  could  be  no  doubt  about 
that;  simple,  but  grand.  I  have  no  knowledge  of 
architecture,  and  am  unable  to  describe  it  properly. 
I  can  only  tell  of  the  effect  it  produced  upon  me. 
The  front,  which  we  were  approaching,  was  lined 
with  fluted  columns,  doubled  in  the  center,  reached 
by  a  magnificent  broad  series  of  steps,  and  standing 
out  a  little  in  advance  of  the  remainder  of  the 
front.  The  roof  was  also  a  little  raised  over  the 
central  portico.  The  material  seemed  to  be  mar- 
ble. In  front  was  a  large  stone  paved  area  or 
plaza,  bounded  on  the  sides  by  a  low  wall,  and  on 
either  side  of  this  open  space  was  a  bronze  statue. 
The  pose  and  outline  of  one  of  the  figures  ap- 
peared so  familiar  to  me,  that  I  went  over  to  see 
whether  my  suspicions  were  correct.  I  found  they 
were.  It  was  a  statue  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  I 
expressed  my  surprise  at  seeing  it  here,  and  also 

137 


138     THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

remarked  that  it  looked  wonderfully  like  the  St. 
Gaudens'  statue  of  the  same  man  that  I  had  seen 
in  Chicago. 

"  You  are  right,"  the  negro  replied.  "  It  is  the 
same." 

"  But  how  came  it  here?  "  I  exclaimed. 

*'  We  went  over  and  got  possession  of  it  dur- 
ing your  relapse  into  barbarism,  about  fifteen  hun- 
dred years  ago.  It  was  suffering  from  neglect, 
had  been  knocked  off  or  pulled  off  from  its  ped- 
estal, and  was  lying  unnoticed  in  the  dirt,  when 
we  learned  of  its  condition  and  went  over  there 
one  night  and  removed  it." 

"  Relapse  into  barbarism?  " 

"  Yes.  You  can  learn  more  about  that,  if  you 
care  to,  from  our  librarian,  who  is  a  scholar  and 
historian,  and  moreover,  speaks  excellent  ancient 
English.  You  shall  meet  him  presently.  This 
statue  and  the  other  on  the  opposite  side  are  the 
only  statues  of  white  men  we  have  erected." 

"  And  whose  is  the  other  one?  "  I  asked. 

"  Louis  Pasteur,"  he  rephed,  "  and  we  pro- 
cured that  in  much  the  same  way.  It  is  also  an 
ancient  statue,  made  by  a  contemporary  sculptor, 
and  used  to  stand  in  Paris,  the  capital  of  France  at 
that  time  as  you  may  perhaps  remember,  but  when 
the  great  expulsion  took  place,  and  the  whites  had 
to  leave  the  country,  we  were  able  to  gain  posses- 


A  BIT  OF  HISTORY  139 

slon  of  it  and  bring  it  here.  As  I  said,  they  are 
the  only  memorials  of  white  men  we  have  here,  and 
curiously  enough  they  both  lived  in  the  same  cen- 
tury, the  nineteenth,  also  your  century,  I  believe. 
We  put  them  here  and  value  them  highly,  because, 
in  contrast  to  most  of  the  whites,  they  were  great 
altruists,  or  at  least  in  spite  of  some  critics,  we 
look  upon  them  as  such."  He  turned  toward  the 
Lincoln  statue  and  continued.  "  You  will  of 
course,  understand  why  we  revere  this  man.  He 
was  the  emancipator  of  our  race  from  bondage. 
The  other,"  pointing  across  the  plaza,  "  was  also  a 
great  emancipator,  for  he  freed  the  human  race 
from  its  superstitions  regarding  disease." 

"  What  do  you  mean  by  the  '  great  expul- 
sion '?  "  I  inquired  with  a  great  deal  of  curiosity. 

"  That  must  wait  until  we  reach  the  library," 
and  we  crossed  the  open  area  and  began  to  ascend 
the  steps.  Just  as  we  had  mounted  two  or  three,  I 
heard  a  loud  whirring  sound  that  seemed  not  far 
away,  and  there  was  a  sudden  slight  darkening  of 
the  air,  as  if  the  shadow  of  a  cloud  had  passed 
over  us.  The  next  instant  I  saw  what  looked  like 
a  huge  loaded  truck  or  dray,  though  wheelless, 
drop  to  the  ground  in  front  of  a  small  basement 
door  in  the  wing  of  the  building  at  our  left,  and  a 
negro  stepped  jauntily  off.  Another  emerged 
from  the  door,  and  the  two  began  in  a  leisurely 


I40    THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

manner  to  remove  the  contents  of  the  truck  inside 
the  building.  At  my  exclamation  of  surprise,  my 
host  quietly  remarked: 

"  That  is  a  farmer,  bringing  in  supplies.  By  the 
time  we  reach  the  storeroom,  these  things  will  be 
inside  and  very  likely  stowed  away  in  their  ap- 
propriate places." 

"  You  use  your  air  machines  for  heavy  truck- 
ing, then?  " 

"  Certainly,  although,  for  us,  there  is  no  such 
thing  in  transportation  as  heavy  goods  or  light,  but 
only  bulky  or  concentrated.  We  conduct  all  our 
travel  and  transportation  through  the  air,  and  con- 
sequently have  no  roads,  as  you  have  seen.  We 
have  a  few  beaten  paths,  but  our  foot  travel  is 
mostly  untrammeled  and  free." 

I  should  have  liked  to  stop  and  investigate  this 
extraordinary  truck.  In  fact  I  should  have  liked 
to  stop  all  along  and  scrutinize  everything  we 
passed  and  tr)'  to  learn  something  about  this  re- 
markable country  and  people,  but  my  guide  kept 
hurrying  me  along,  and  I  could  not  cut  loose  from 
him,  for  I  should  have  been  all  at  sea.  I  felt 
in  my  bones,  as  I  presume  a  small  dog  feels,  who 
is  intensely  interested  in  everything  he  sees  and 
wants  to  investigate  constantly,  but  is  held  in  leash 
by  his  master,  and  dragged  inhumanly  along,  com- 
pelled much  against  his  will  to  leave  vast  fields  of 


A  BIT  OF  HISTORY  141 

exploration  and  inquiry  entirely  untouched.  So  he 
briskly  mounted  the  steps  and  I  trotted  meekly  on 
behind  him. 

We  passed  through  the  porch  and  entered  the 
library.  There  was  no  vestibule  or  entrance  hall, 
and  we  came  directly  into  the  room.  It  was  vast 
and  lofty,  lighted  from  above  in  such  a  way  that 
glare  was  avoided  and  there  were  no  dark  corners. 
Around  the  sides  were  rows  upon  rows  of  shelving, 
mostly  empty  as  it  seemed  to  me,  excepting  for  a 
few  thousand  volumes  scattered  here  and  there, 
and  a  few  hundred  of  what  looked  to  me  like 
small  ivory  boxes  piled  up  in  one  corner  of  the 
room.  The  floor  was  occupied  by  tables,  some 
large  and  some  small,  and  a  vast  number  of  arm- 
chairs, many  of  which  were  occupied  by  readers 
and  writers.  Here  and  there  upon  the  tables  were 
small  wooden  boxes,  looking  like  stereoscopes, 
which  I  took  them  to  be,  for  I  saw  one  of  the  read- 
ers taking  small  plates  from  one  of  the  ivory  boxes 
I  have  mentioned,  inserting  them  into  the  wooden 
box,  and  then  inspecting  them  through  a  hole  in 
the  side. 

Many  of  the  occupants  of  the  room  looked  up 
as  we  entered,  but  only  for  a  moment,  as  they 
turned  again  to  the  business  that  had  brought  them 
there.  They  appeared  to  take  but  slight  interest 
in  me,  although  I  was  the  only  white  man  in  the 


142    THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

place,  and  felt  a  little  hurt  that  so  little  attention 
was  paid  me.  My  guide  soothed  me  a  little  by 
explaining  that  I  was  by  no  means  the  only  stroller 
that  had  visited  the  community,  that  they  had  had 
perhaps  a  half  dozen  such  in  his  own  time,  all  of 
whom  were  taken  in  charge  by  himself  and  sent 
home  again  as  missionaries  among  their  fellows,  as 
I  was  to  be. 

"  Your  boy  told  me  he  had  never  seen  a  white 
man  before." 

"  He  told  you  the  truth,  but  he  is  young  yet." 

"  What  becomes  of  these  visitors  you  send 
away?  "  said  I.      "  I  never  saw  or  heard  of  one." 

He  smiled  again  as  he  replied:  "  As  soon  as 
they  begin  to  talk,  we  learn,  they  are  clapped  into 
asylums  for  the  insane,  and  left  there  for  the  re- 
mainder of  their  lives." 

"  But,  good  heavens,  do  you  suppose  they  will 
do  that  to  me?  "  I  said,  in  some  alarm. 

"  I  am  afraid  they  will,"  he  said,  "  though  you 
will  have  a  better  chance  than  the  others  to  gain 
a  hearing,  if  you  come  back  here  with  me,  because 
you  will  find  them  smarting  under  a  defeat  they 
cannot  explain,  and  they  may  be  disposed  to  heed 
what  you  have  to  tell  them." 

An  elderly,  small  and  very  active  negro  was 
busily  engaged  at  one  of  the  smaller  tables,  oc- 
casionally looking  up  to  converse  with  a  visitor,  and 


A  BIT  OF  HISTORY  143 

now  and  then  darting  to  a  shelf  and  procuring  a 
book  for  an  applicant. 

"  That  is  our  librarian.  He  spends  his  entire 
time  here,  and  knows  the  location  of  every  volume 
in  our  collection.  I  was  going  to  say  that  he  was 
acquainted  with  the  contents  of  them  all,  but  that 
might  be  going  too  far.  We  had  better  go  right 
up  and  ask  the  questions  you  have  been  putting  to 
me,  but  which  I  have  left  unanswered  by  reason  of 
insufficient  knowledge." 

The  scholar  received  me  with  the  utmost  con- 
sideration and  begged,  in  very  good  English,  to  be 
allowed  to  serve  me  in  any  way  he  could. 

*'  My  host  and  guide  in  this  wonderful  place," 
I  said,  "  tells  me  that  our  time  is  very  limited,  and 
I  shall  not  be  able,  therefore,  to  ask  all  the  ques- 
tions I  should  like  to,  but  one  or  two  items  of  in- 
formation I  should  be  very  glad  to  get.  He  tells 
me  that  I  am  somehow,  in  a  manner  that  he  says  I 
shall  understand  later,  a  survival  of  very  ancient 
times  —  some  3,000  years  ago." 

He  nodded  his  head  in  reply. 

"  Now,  that  being  so,  and  I  have  no  way  to  dis- 
prove it  excepting  to  reiterate  its  impossibility,  ac- 
cepting it  for  the  moment  as  true,  I  am  naturally 
anxious  to  learn  something  of  what  has  taken  place 
in  my  world,  among  my  own  people  and  race,  in 
those  thirty  centuries." 


144    THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

"  Naturally,"  he  replied,  "  but  In  the  time  you 
have  at  your  disposal  I  cannot,  of  course,  give  you 
a  history  of  events  for  3,000  years.  There  are 
probably  some  special  points  you  have  in  mind,  and 
those  I  will  try  to  explain,  if  you  will  state  them 
clearly." 

"  Of  course  I  am  more  interested  in  what  took 
place  immediately  after  I  left  the  world  I  was  liv- 
ing in,  than  in  anything  that  has  occurred  since, 
with  perhaps  one  exception.  In  the  early  years  of 
the  twentieth  century  there  were  pending  two  mat- 
ters I  should  really  like  to  know  the  termination 
of.      Perhaps  you  can  tell  me  how  they  turned  out." 

"  And  pray  what  are  they?  " 

*'  The  Panama  Canal  and  Woman  Suffrage. 
Was  the  Canal  opened  on  time,  and  was  It  a  suc- 
cess, and  did  the  women  finally  win  the  right  of 
suffrage,  which  they  struggled  for  so  long,  and  if 
so,  was  the  experiment  successful?  That  is,  did 
it  turn  out  to  be  advantageous  and  beneficial  to 
the  State?" 

These  questions  seemed  to  be  posers.  He 
rubbed  his  head  and  pondered  a  moment,  and  then 
with  the  remark  that  the  suffrage  matter  was 
rather  an  insignificant  detail  which  he  should  have 
to  look  up,  added: 

'*  Panama  Canal?  Ah,  yes,  the  Panama  Straits. 
Yes,   I   understand.     Pardon   me   one   moment," 


A  BIT  OF  HISTORY  14S 

and  he  went  to  one  of  the  shelves  filled  with  the  lit- 
tle ivory  boxes,  and  reaching  for  one  of  them, 
brought  it  over  where  we  were  standing.  He  gave 
it  to  my  guide  and  went  off  apparently  in  search  of 
a  stereoscopic  box  which  was  not  in  use. 

My  guide  opened  the  small  box,  which  was  about 
an  inch  square  and  an  inch  thick,  and  disclosed  the 
interior  filled  with  small,  extremely  thin  plates  cov- 
ered with  a  dark  gray  stain  extending  over  the 
whole  surface  of  each  plate,  excepting  a  very  nar- 
row margin  of  white  around  the  edge. 

"  This,"  he  explained  to  me,  "  is  a  volume  of 
history  covering  a  period  of  a  hundred  years  or 
more  in  great  detail.  As  he  has  selected  it  for 
you,  it  doubtless  includes  the  twentieth  century  you 
have  been  asking  about.  Our  books  were  found 
to  accumulate  at  such  a  rate  that  we  were  fairly 
swamped  with  them  and  so  one  of  our  ingenious 
scientific  students  invented  this  plan  which  pre- 
serves everything  we  wish  to  preserve  and  yet  oc- 
cupies little  space.  Those  boxes  you  see,  which 
fill  only  a  few  feet  of  shelving  contain  almost  every- 
thing that  has  been  thought  worth  printing  as  far 
back  as  our  collection  ever  went.  We  have  the 
entire  literature  of  the  world  here,  and  can  supply 
in  a  moment  anything  that  is  called  for.  The 
books  you  see,  which  occupy  much  more  shelf 
room  than  these  small  boxes  taken  altogether,  are 


146     THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

only  those  of  the  last  hundred  years.  When  a 
book  is  a  hundred  years  old,  it  is  transferred,  by 
a  most  ingenious  process  akin  to  photography,  to 
these  thin  plates,  which  are  indestructible,  and  so 
thin  that  each  of  these  boxes  holds  20,000  of  them. 
Of  course  the  reproduction  in  this  microscopic 
form  can  only  be  read  by  powerful  lenses,  but 
these  other  boxes,  which  formed  an  essential  part 
of  the  invention,  contain  a  peculiar  arrangement  of 
lenses  and  mirrors,  that  enables  us  to  read  them 
without  difficulty." 

While  he  was  speaking,  the  librarian  had  re- 
turned with  a  stereoscopic  box  and  now  stood  wait- 
ing quietly  until  he  should  have  ceased.  Then  he 
inserted  the  plate  my  friend  had  been  showing  me 
into  the  bottom  of  the  box,  pushed  a  button  at  the 
side,  and  turned  the  box  around  so  that  the  other 
side  faced  me.  Then  I  saw  what  I  had  not  noticed 
before,  that  there  was  a  large  opening  on  that 
side,  and  in  the  opening  appeared  a  smooth,  white, 
semi-translucent  surface  like  a  pane  of  glass,  in- 
clined backward  from  the  top  at  a  convenient  angle 
for  reading  and  upon  that  white  surface  appeared 
a  page  of  easily  legible  print,  spotless  and  per- 
fect as  any  well-printed  book.  It  was  evidently  a 
portion  of  a  history  of  my  country  and  of  about 
my  time,  for  I  saw  in  it  a  reference  to  "  Black 
Friday  "  and  something  about  "  specie  payments," 


A  BIT  OF  HISTORY  147 

which  I  took  to  be  references  to  financial  history 
of  the  early  70s. 

"  This  is  not  what  I  want,"  I  exclaimed,  and  the 
librarian,  with  a  glance  at  the  page  before  me,  re- 
moved the  little  plate  and  choosing  another,  placed 
it  in  the  box  and  I  found  what  I  wanted  to  know 
though  stated  in  very  brief  terms. 

According  to  these  records  the  opening  of  the 
Panama  Canal,  which  had  been  fixed  for  the  be- 
ginning of  19 1 5,  had  to  be  postponed  from  time  to 
time  on  account  of  unforeseen  difficulties  which 
prevented  its  rapid  completion.  These  were 
mostly  land  slides,  or  earth  slides,  which  kept  fill- 
ing up  the  excavations  and  otherwise  interfering 
with  the  operations  of  the  working  force.  To  a 
certain  extent,  to  be  sure,  these  slides  had  been  an- 
ticipated, but  it  had  been  supposed  by  the  engi- 
neers that  after  a  time  a  static  equilibrium  would 
be  reached,  and  no  more  slipping  of  the  sides 
would  occur.  But  after  this  equilibrium  had  be- 
come, as  was  believed,  thoroughly  established,  the 
slipping  most  unexpectedly  began  again,  and  from 
the  very  fact  that  it  was  not  expected  and  came  on 
rather  suddenly,  caused  more  damage  and  delay 
than  had  previously  been  the  case.  So  the  open- 
ing had  to  be  postponed  for  more  than  two  years, 
and  was  finally  set  for  January  i,  19 18.  In  the 
latter  part  of  December,  1917,  most  of  the  fleets 


148     THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

that  were  to  take  part  in  the  celebration  were  in  the 
vicinity,  not  more  than  a  hundred  miles  or  so  away 
as  a  rule,  and  none  more  than  a  day's  sail.  On 
Christmas  Day  there  was  a  slight  earthquake 
shock,  which  was  felt  in  greater  or  less  degree 
throughout  Central  America,  and  it  was  so  strongly 
felt  in  Panama,  which  had  been  hitherto  entirely 
exempt  from  such  visitations,  that  it  aroused  some 
consternation  and  fears  were  expressed  of  possi- 
ble damage  to  the  Canal,  but  all  apprehensions 
were  dismissed  when  it  was  found  upon  a  careful 
survey  being  made  that  all  the  works  were  intact 
and  not  the  slightest  harm  could  be  detected.  On 
the  following  day,  December  26,  there  were  other 
shocks,  and  along  toward  night  one  more  severe 
than  any  that  had  preceded  terrified  some  of  the 
inhabitants  of  Colon  and  Panama  to  such  an  extent, 
that  they  left  their  abodes  and  retired  into  the  in- 
terior. By  this  time  apprehensions  of  damage  to 
the  Canal,  and  especially  to  the  locks  and  fortifica- 
tions, began  to  assail  the  engineering  force,  who 
had  pooh-poohed  any  idea  of  the  kind  from  the 
first,  and  it  was  decided  in  the  evening  that  the 
following  day  should  be  spent  in  a  minute  survey 
of  the  principal  works,  to  determine  whether  it  was 
necessary  to  put  off  again  for  a  time  the  official 
opening  that  had  already  been  so  often  postponed. 
Considerable  alarm  was  felt  by  all  concerned,  and 


A  BIT  OF  HISTORY  149 

distinguished  seismologists  had  expressed  their 
opinion  that  the  shocks  already  felt  presaged  a 
more  serious  disturbance.  And  they  were  right 
in  their  surmise. 

In  the  night  of  December  26,  about  two  o'clock 
in  the  morning,  there  was  a  tremendous  convulsion 
of  the  earth  and  sea.  The  fleets  rocked  violently  in 
the  roadsteads,  and  many  of  the  war  vessels  were 
cast  upon  the  shore,  some  of  them  for  quite  a  dis- 
tance inland,  the  land  having  sunk  and  risen  again 
in  the  intervals  of  the  earthquake,  which  lasted, 
with  frequent  and  often  prolonged  intervals,  until 
eight  o'clock  of  the  next  day,  December  27.  When 
things  quieted  down  somewhat,  and  the  tremors 
had  ceased,  the  survivors  In  the  Immediate  vicinity 
of  the  catastrophe  found  the  sea  full  of  floating 
debris,  the  shore  sprinkled  with  dead  bodies  of 
men  and  animals,  and  the  region  of  the  Panama 
Canal  covered  with  a  dense  pall  of  cloud  and 
smoke  which  was  absolutely  impenetrable,  for 
those  who  made  a  bold  attempt  to  see  what  was 
hidden  beneath  It  were  driven  back  by  irrespirable 
gases.  In  this  condition  matters  remained  for  sev- 
eral days.  Slight  earth  tremors  followed  for  a 
day  or  two  at  lengthening  intervals  and  presently 
ceased.  The  nations  of  the  earth  vied  with  each 
other  In  alleviating  the  distress  of  the  unfortunate 
sufferers  by  the  disaster  and  all  watched  In  breath- 


I50    THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

less  suspense  for  the  end.  At  length,  on  the  very 
morning  set  for  the  grand  celebration  of  the  com- 
pletion of  the  great  work,  the  greatest  ever  under- 
taken and  carried  through  by  mankind,  the  sun 
shone  down  bright  and  clear  upon  what  was  to 
have  been  the  scene  of  the  great  festival.  Where 
the  cities  of  Panama  and  Colon  had  stood,  where 
the  magnificent  works  of  the  Canal  and  the  mighty 
fortifications,  constructed  after  years  of  toil  and 
the  expenditure  of  hundreds  of  millions,  had  been, 
now  rolled  the  mingled  waters  of  the  two  great 
oceans  in  a  strait  fifty  miles  wide  and  deep  enough, 
as  afterward  ascertained,  for  safe  navigation  in 
any  part.  And  so  man's  dream  of  centuries  be- 
came an  accomplished  fact  by  natural  forces  in  a 
single  night. 

And  so  this  was  the  explanation  of  the  librar- 
ian's cryptic  reference  to  the  "  Strait  of  Pan- 
ama !  "  I  was  overwhelmed  with  the  revelation, 
and  fell  into  a  reverie,  from  which  I  was  roused 
by  the  voice  of  my  guide  urging  me  to  haste,  as 
our  time  was  short  and  there  was  still  much  to  do. 

"  All  right,"  I  said,  "  I  will  be  with  you  in  a 
moment.  But  about  woman  suffrage.  What 
ever  became  of  that  movement?  " 

While  I  had  been  occupied  in  reading  about 
the  Panama  Canal,  the  hbrarian  had  been  busily 
refreshing  his  memory  on  the  other  points  I  had 


A  BIT  OF  HISTORY  151 

inquired  about,  and  he  now  proceeded  to  enlighten 
me. 

"  The  woman  suffrage  movement  was  but  a  rip- 
ple on  the  surface  of  the  stream  of  historical 
events.  Conspicuous  for  a  moment,  it  soon  van- 
ished. Suffrage  was  obtained  by  the  women  ear- 
lier in  America  than  in  England.  In  the  latter 
country  their  success  was  put  off  nearly  fifty  years 
by  the  crazy  act  of  one  of  the  militants,  so-called, 
a  young  and  giddy  girl  of  eighteen  who  got  so 
wrought  up  by  the  speeches  and  behavior  of  her 
elders,  that,  to  make  herself  a  heroine  and  a  martyr 
to  the  cause,  she  assassinated  the  Prime  Min- 
ister. In  America  full  suffrage  was  obtained  by 
the  women  soon  after  your  time,  but  the  biologic- 
ally valuable  ones  seem  to  have  given  it  up  at  an 
early  date,  preferring  the  home  to  the  forum  or 
the  mart  and  leaving  the  franchise  to  be  exercised 
mainly  by  the  screechers,  and  so  it  gradually  fell 
away,  and  women  confessed  by  their  action  that  a 
strict  division  of  labor  and  duties  between  the 
sexes  was  better  than  to  confuse  them." 

"Screechers?"  I  remarked.  "What  do  you 
mean  by  that?  " 

He  turned  to  one  of  the  boxes  of  plates  and 
removing  one  inserted  it  into  the  stereoscope,  as 
I  must  call  it,  in  default  of  a  better  name. 

"  From  a  dictionary  of  the  time,"  he  said  curtly, 


152     THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

and  I  saw  the  following  definition  on  the  plate 
before  me. 

"  Screecher.  A  term  of  opprobrium  applied  by 
their  opponents  to  a  body  of  women  who  main- 
tain that,  excepting  superficial  differences  of 
physique,  men  and  women  are  essentially  the  same, 
and  that  their  duties  and  functions  in  life,  with 
the  single  exception  of  those  concerning  the  con- 
tinuation of  the  species,  should  be  identical.  Be- 
ing mostly  composed  of  sterile  women  or  spinsters, 
the  sect  is  gradually  dying  out." 

"  Well,"  I  said,  as  I  drew  a  deep  breath,  "  that 
seems  a  little  unfair  to  a  lot  of  rather  estimable 
women,  so  far  as  I  knew  anything  about  them." 


CHAPTER  XIII 

THE    GREAT    EXPULSION 

AS  no  reply  was  forthcoming  to  this  remark, 
I  broached  the  last  thing  I  happened  to  have 
in  mind  to  make  inquiry  about,  and  that  was  my 
guide's  passing  remark  about  "  the  great  expul- 
sion." And  so  I  asked  about  that.  Upon  this 
question  the  librarian  was  more  fluent,  and  evi- 
dently looked  upon  the  subject  as  one  of  superior 
importance, 

"  Early  in  the  twentieth  century,"  he  began, 
"  China  began  to  stretch  her  huge  body  and  yawn 
as  she  awoke  from  her  long  sleep  of  about  two 
thousand  years.  During  this  sleep  she  had 
dreamed  that  she  was  the  celestial  kingdom,  spe- 
cially favored  by  the  gods,  the  happy  nation  se- 
cure and  contented.  She  was  the  most  ancient 
nation  in  the  world  and  had  maintained  her  in- 
tegrity longer  than  any  other  people  that  had  ever 
lived  on  the  face  of  the  earth.  From  this  sleep 
and  this  opium  dream  she  was  rudely  aroused  by 
the  pin-pricks  of  the  international  busybodies  of 
the  white  race,  who  had  been  constantly  enlarg- 

153 


154    THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

Ing  the  field  of  their  pernicious  activities  until  they 
were  apparently  upon  the  point  of  dominating  the 
entire  globe.  She  awoke  to  find  herself  surrounded 
on  every  hand  by  meddlesome  foes,  who  seemed  to 
her  to  be  bent  upon  tearing  her  to  pieces,  and 
practically  enslaving  her  people,  as  she  saw  they 
had  already  done  with  others  of  what  they  called 
the  inferior  races.  Now  and  then  they  hypocrit- 
ically bewailed  what  they  were  pleased  to  call  the 
white  man's  burden,  to  wit,  the  administration  of 
other  people's  affairs  to  suit  themselves.  Look- 
ing upon  this,  however,  as  a  Divinely  appointed 
mission,  they  bent  their  backs  cheerfully  to  the 
burdensome  task  of  exploiting  the  resources  of 
the  less  powerful  peoples  and  sucking  them  dry, 
with  the  apparent  purpose  of  concentrating  the 
wealth  and  power  of  the  entire  world  in  the  hands 
of  the  white  race,  settled  mainly  in  Europe  and 
the  Americas.  But  In  trying  to  pursue  the  same 
course  with  China,  they  reckoned  badly.  Her 
mass  was  too  great,  her  inertia  too  persistent  for 
them  to  produce  any  impression  upon  for  a  long 
time.  But  at  length  she  awoke  and  remained 
awake,  and  her  energies  developed  and  gathered 
strength  until  the  European  Frankenstein  was  ap- 
palled at  the  monster  he  had  created.  When 
the  regeneration  of  China  was  fairly  begun,  she 
appropriated  with  avidity  all  that  the  detested  for- 


THE  GREAT  EXPULSION         155 

eigners  could  teach  her,  and  then  continued  her 
advance  with  all  the  brilliant  genius  that  had 
blazed  forth  in  a  previous  era  before  the  time  of 
Christ,  under  the  dynasty  of  Han.  Huge  armies 
were  formed  and  drilled,  improvements  in  weap- 
ons and  ammunition  invented,  fleets  created  and 
manned,  and  improved  methods  of  administration 
adopted,  until,  almost  before  they  had  time  to 
comprehend  what  was  occurring,  the  peoples  of 
Europe  found  themselves  confronted  by  a  redoubt- 
able antagonist  whom  they  could  no  longer  bully 
or  despise.  A  good  deal  of  work  had  been  done 
in  the  vast  back  country,  masked  from  hostile  in- 
spection by  great  commercial  and  industrial  ac- 
tivity along  the  coast  and  the  northern  and  south- 
ern boundaries.  And  then,  about  the  middle  of 
the  twentieth  century,  to  the  consternation  of  all 
the  foreign  nations  who  had  flourishing  colonies 
at  various  points  upon  Chinese  territory,  they  re- 
ceived one  day  simultaneous  notice  to  withdraw 
from  the  country  altogether.  They  had  a  hurried 
conference  and  refused.  All  of  the  Europeans, 
who  were  a  good  deal  handicapped  by  their  im- 
mense distance  from  their  base  of  supplies,  had 
expected  that  Japan  would  be  the  monkey  to  pull 
their  chestnuts  out  of  the  fire,  but  to  their  aston- 
ishment she  held  herself  aloof,  having,  it  was  aft- 
erward ascertained,   a  secret  understanding  with 


156    THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

China  involving  an  extensive  scheme  of  operations 
that  were  to  continue  into  an  indefinite  future, — 
a  perpetual  treaty,  so  to  speak,  involving,  as  it 
afterward  appeared,  world-shaking  consequences. 
So  they  were  left  to  their  own  devices,  and  after 
a  few  battles  and  skirmishes,  on  land  and  sea,  they 
were  all  forced  to  leave  and  were  magnanimously 
allowed  by  the  reigning  monarch  to  take  every- 
thing portable  with  them.  After  this  uncom- 
fortable experience,  as  may  well  be  imagined,  the 
whites  were  very  chary  of  interfering  with  the  na- 
tion they  had  so  long  held  in  contempt,  but  which 
had  now  become  so  powerful,  and  they  were  sat- 
isfied to  retain  their  commercial  relations  with  her 
and  with  Japan,  without  any  further  attempts  to 
exercise  any  form  of  administrative  or  financial 
control  within  her  borders. 

"  And  this  status  lasted  for  above  a  hundred 
years,  China  having  entered  the  family  of  nations, 
and,  though  extremely  jealous  of  her  own  rights, 
conducting  herself  with  the  most  amiable  consid- 
eration for  the  rights  of  others.  Indeed  one  or 
two  of  the  white  nations,  less  truculent  and  re- 
vengeful than  the  others  naively  confessed  that 
they  had  learned  from  China  many  things  greatly 
to  their  advantage.  After  some  hundreds  of  years 
the  civilization  of  the  whites,  which  had  for  a 
long  time  been  evidently  decaying,  began  to  be  in 


THE  GREAT  EXPULSION         157 

a  perilous  condition.  Great  changes  had  taken 
place  in  the  relations  of  the  European  peoples, 
some  nations  had  disappeared,  died  out  or  been 
absorbed  by  others,  and  there  were  plain  indica- 
tions here  and  there  of  a  relapse  into  barbarism. 
This  was  especially  so  in  the  United  States  of 
America,  which  retained  the  old  title,  although  it 
had  long  since  become  an  empire." 

"  Excuse  me  for  interrupting  you,"  I  said,  "  but 
I  am  curious  to  know  and  unable  to  understand 
how  my  nation  could  ever  have  fallen  back  into 
barbarism.  If  it  is  not  too  much  to  ask  of  you, 
could  you  not  tell  me?  " 

"  There  is  hardly  time  to  enter  into  details," 
was  the  reply,  "  but  the  starting  point  of  the  decay 
was  financial  difficulties.  Your  people  and  all  the 
white  peoples,  in  their  anxiety  to  possess  the  earth, 
and  each  nation  for  itself,  had  piled  up  enormous 
debts,  impossible  of  payment,  and  they  all  even- 
tually found  themselves  plunged  into  bankruptcy. 
Immense  wealth,  which  was  wrested  from  the 
earth  by  the  toilers,  was  squandered  and  dissipated 
by  the  upper  classes  and  the  governments  in  all 
kinds  of  unproductive  enterprises  and  personal 
luxury  and  extravagance.  The  products  of  labor 
were  gathered  into  the  hands  of  a  few  and  passed 
on  by  them  to  the  governments,  which  spent  them 
as  fast  as  they  could,  giving  notes  or  bonds  in  re- 


158     THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

turn.  These  evidences  of  debt  were  held  by  the 
few,  and  as  they  required  interest  from  the  gov- 
ernments, who  in  turn  were  constantly  begging 
for  more,  a  vicious  circle  was  formed,  by  which  the 
wealth  of  each  country  was  constantly  passing 
from  capitalist  to  government  and  back  again, 
while  the  unavoidable  waste  involved  in  the  sup- 
port of  both  and  the  losses  of  war  was  continually 
replenished  by  the  labor  of  the  masses  of  the 
people.  As  the  governments  acted  merely  as 
agents  and  could  not  hold  capital  on  their  own 
account,  it  became  more  and  more  concentrated  in 
the  hands  of  a  comparatively  small  number  of  the 
people.  This  went  on  for  hundreds  of  years,  the 
rich  looking  upon  the  relation  of  master  and  man, 
of  rich  and  poor  as  ordained  by  Heaven,  and  des- 
tined to  endure  forever,  until,  in  the  progress  of 
education,  the  mass  of  the  people  became  fairly 
aroused  to  the  injustice  of  it  all,  and  began  to  be 
recalcitrant  about  taxes.  By  this  time  they  were 
fairly  ground  down  into  the  dust.  The  extrava- 
gance of  governments  in  administrative  expenses 
and  wars  had  been  so  great,  the  debts  so  enormous, 
that  the  interest  and  running  expenses  could  not 
be  paid.  Interest  alone  for  many  nations  nearly 
equaled  the  total  production  of  wealth  every  year, 
and  the  producers,  the  people,  were  on  the  verge 
of    starvation.     So    they    refused    to    contribute 


THE  GREAT  EXPULSION         159 

longer  to  the  support  of  a  social  fabric  from  which 
they  derived  no  satisfaction,  and  the  burden  of  up- 
holding which  increased  from  year  to  year,  with 
no  let-up.  Attempts  were  made  to  collect  taxes 
by  force,  but  met  with  resistance,  sullen  and  spora- 
dic at  first,  then  general  and  violent.  The  scenes 
of  the  French  Revolution  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury were  repeated  with  added  horrors,  over  Eu- 
rope and  America,  and  when  the  governments  had 
been  abolished  and  the  debt-holders  exterminated, 
there  was  little  left  of  the  civilization  you  knew. 
No  Napoleon  arose  to  curb  the  multitude,  and 
the  destruction  of  property,  which  the  mob  in  blind 
rage  carried  out  without  discrimination,  not  only 
involved  the  instrumentalities  by  which  your  ex- 
traordinary industrial  civilization  had  been  devel- 
oped, but  had  even  destroyed  the  means  by  which 
they  had  been  produced,  for  when  the  mad  orgy 
was  over,  it  was  found  that  not  a  single  man  or 
woman  was  left  in  Europe  or  America  who  under- 
stood the  construction  of  a  machine,  the  principles 
of  the  battery,  or  the  manufacture  of  any  instru- 
ments of  precision.  The  entire  foundation  of 
your  present  social  regime  had  been  swept  away, 
and  there  was  nothing  left  but  a  huge  multitude  of 
ignorant  or  half-educated  men,  who  had  never 
been  far  removed  from  savagery,  with  sturdy 
bodies  and  willing  heads  and  hands,  but  lacking 


i6o    THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

in  brains.  And  so  the  whites  remained  for  hun- 
dreds of  years  until  a  natural  recuperation  of  their 
nervous  system  started  them  again  on  the  upward 
path. 

"  The  great  revolution  and  fall  of  the  white 
race,  which  I  have  just  described  in  as  few  words 
as  possible,  did  not  occur  until  after  the  great  ex- 
pulsion, but,  as  I  have  already  said,  the  first  symp- 
toms of  decay  were  already  visible  to  the  eagle 
eyes  of  the  outside  peoples  who,  and  especially 
the  Chinese  and  Japanese,  were  ready  to  pounce 
upon  their  prey,  when  they  thought  the  time  was 
ripe.  And  this  came  about  in  the  twenty-sixth 
century  of  our  era. 

*'  The  Chinese  Empire  had  now  become  the 
most  formidable  military  power  that  had  ever  been 
known.  She  had  a  population  of  more  than  600,- 
000,000,  a  standing  army  or  permanent  military 
force,  of  8,000,000  highly  trained  soldiers,  with 
competent  commanders  and  unlimited  resources, 
and  a  potential  army,  including  the  reserves,  all 
of  whom  had  good  military  training,  of  40,000,- 
000  men.  In  her  own  territory  she  had  long  been 
impregnable,  but  she  had  been  known  from  time 
immemorial  as  a  peace-loving  nation,  and  none  of 
the  other  peoples  had  any  reason  to  fear  aggres- 
sion on  her  part.  The  nations  of  Europe,  how- 
ever, and  the  white  race  generally,  kept  up  their 


THE  GREAT  EXPULSION         i6i 

quarrels  and  bickerings,  and  were  a  constant  source 
of  annoyance  to  the  more  quiet  nations  along  the 
border.  They  were  constantly  making  raids  and 
sending  out  what  they  called  punitive  expeditions 
to  avenge  the  death  of  rascals  who  had  been  caught 
red-handed  by  other  weaker  nations  and  put  out 
of  the  way.  In  the  course  of  some  of  these  forays 
their  armed  forces  disturbed  the  rest  of  the  great 
dragon,  and  finally  China  was  stirred  to  wrath  and 
determined  to  retaliate.  But  as  her  patience  had 
been  long  enduring,  so  her  anger  when  once 
aroused  was  the  more  terrible,  and  she  entered 
upon  a  course  of  action  the  most  momentous  in 
the  history  of  the  world. 

"  The  empire  was  now  in  the  control  of  a 
dynasty  claiming  a  lineal  descent  from  the  great 
Vouti  of  the  Han  dynasty,  and  under  a  succes- 
sion of  able  administrators  and  military  geniuses 
carried  to  a  successful  conclusion  the  most  stu- 
pendous military  enterprise  ever  conceived  by  a 
human  mind. 

"  China  and  Japan  were  by  this  time  and  had 
been  for  hundreds  of  years  in  perfect  accord. 
Close  relations  had  also  been  established  with  the 
princes  of  India,  where  Germany  had  supplanted 
the  English  as  titular  masters.  The  United  States 
had  long  since  withdrawn  from  the  Philippines 
and  her  other  island  possessions  in  the  Pacific  and 


1 62     THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

the  only  foreigners  of  the  white  race  at  that  time 
exercising  sovereignty  in  Asiatic  territory  were  the 
Germans,  French  and  Russians.  The  Dutch  pos- 
sessions had  passed  to  Germany  hundreds  of  years 
before. 

"  Such  was  the  general  situation  when,  like  a 
thunderbolt  from  the  blue  China  issued  a  notice 
to  Europe  that  all  European  people  and  European 
troops  must  be  withdrawn  from  Asiatic  territory, 
that  henceforth  Asia  was  to  be  held  by  Asiatics 
and  the  whites  were  to  confine  their  turbulent  ener- 
gies to  Europe  and  America.  Nothing  was  said 
at  the  time  about  Africa,  but  we  were  already  es- 
tablished here,  and  the  whites  had  already  met 
with  some  unwelcome  experiences  in  trying  to  med- 
dle with  us.  The  white  nations  were  given  a  year 
in  which  to  retire  and  then  the  East  became  silent 
again.  There  was  a  disposition  in  Europe  at  first 
to  ridicule  the  proclamation  or  pay  no  attention  to 
it  at  all,  but  the  wiser  heads  apparently  foresaw 
trouble  and  urged  conciliatory  measures.  To  all 
remonstrances  China  turned  a  deaf  ear,  and  when 
they  became  insistent,  she  expelled  the  embassies 
from  her  borders  with  contumely  and  they  re- 
turned to  Europe  empty  handed  and  boiling  over 
with  indignation,  Europe  was  in  a  quandary. 
She  was  still  inclined  to  despise  the  Asiatic  as  an 
antagonist,  but  she  had  already  had  several  un- 


THE  GREAT  EXPULSION         163 

successful  contests  with  the  Chinese,  and  when  she 
looked  forward  to  a  war  with  an  empire  that  could, 
if  necessary,  throw  forty  million  men  into  the  field, 
she  hesitated.  In  the  end,  after  prolonged  con- 
sultation, they  concluded  to  join  forces  and  make 
common  cause  against  the  common  enemy.  It 
should  be  Europe  against  Asia,  if  it  came  to  that, 
and  despite  the  seeming  odds  against  them,  so  far 
as  numbers  were  concerned,  they  could  not  conceive 
that  defeat  was  possible,  so  ingrained  was  their 
contempt  for  the  fighting  qualities  of  the  foe. 

"  So  a  shout  of  defiance  was  their  answer.  The 
Emperor,  who  had  expected  this  reply  and  made 
thorough  preparations  for  it,  immediately  issued 
another  notice,  which  was  sent,  however,  to  but 
one  nation,  Russia.  Although  Russia,  like  the 
other  whites,  had  been  compelled  to  give  up  her 
holdings  in  Manchuria  and  Mongolia  and  retire, 
like  the  other  white  people,  beyond  the  Chinese 
border,  they  still  held  Siberia,  and  had  large  gar- 
risons along  the  coast  and  strung  along  the  north- 
ern border  of  the  Chinese  Empire,  and  had  been 
for  centuries  making  little  forays  and  skirmish- 
ing along  the  border  with  the  Chinese  and  Japan- 
ese forces  that  were  constantly  stationed  there. 

"  This  new  proclamation,  directed  to  Russia 
alone,  was  peremptory,  and  demanded,  although 
the  year  allowed   for  retirement  in  the   former 


1 64    THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

notice  had  not  expired,  that,  in  consequence  of  the 
recent  action  of  the  European  powers,  the  Russian 
army  and  all  the  Russian  and  other  white  settlers 
should  leave  immediately.  Two  weeks  were  al- 
lowed for  the  removal,  and  if  said  removal  were 
not  begun  before  the  lapse  of  that  time,  they  were 
to  be  expelled  by  force.  The  Chinese  army  was 
already  in  motion,  an  unknown  force  had  been 
mobilized  long  before,  but  the  only  reply  was  a 
rapid  concentration  of  the  Russians,  and  the  hur- 
ried despatch  of  additional  troops  from  the  West. 
One  week  passed  by,  and  the  Chinese,  seeing  that 
no  indication  of  compliance  with  the  proclamation 
could  be  detected,  but  that  everything  showed  an 
intention  to  resist,  issued  a  final  notice,  with  the 
truculent  ultimatum  that  the  patience  of  the  Em- 
peror having  been  exhausted,  and  every  effort  for 
peaceable  withdrawal  rejected,  no  further  com- 
munication with  the  Russians  would  be  maintained, 
that  a  forward  movement  had  already  begun,  and 
as  a  permanent  and  terrible  lesson  to  the  white 
race,  the  European  military  forces  in  Northern 
Asia,  as  far  as  they  had  been  brought  together  in 
battle  array,  were  to  be  surrounded,  captured, 
and  exterminated,  no  quarter  being  given  or  asked. 
The  European  forces  were  estimated  to  have  been 
about  600,000  men,  and  the  Chinese  and  Japanese 
together  probably  mounted  into  the  millions,  pos- 


THE  GREAT  EXPULSION         165 

sibly  four  or  five  millions.  The  Europeans  were 
surrounded  after  desperate  resistance,  and  were 
massacred  to  the  last  man.  Not  one  survived  to 
report  upon  the  battle,  and  the  only  news  Europe 
received  was  sent  by  telegraph  men  in  the  vicin- 
ity, who  announced  that  the  Chinese  had  ceases 
operations  after  the  extinction  of  the  army,  and 
had  done  no  further  injury  to  persons  or  property, 
but  that  all  Europeans  were  hastily  abandoning 
the  country  and  departing  for  the  west. 

"  There  was  a  universal  cry  of  horror  through- 
out Europe  and  America.  The  indescribable  sav- 
agery of  the  massacre  recalled  the  days  of  the  old 
barbarians,  Genghis  Khan  and  the  like,  who  had 
ravaged  the  earth  centuries  before.  It  was  seen 
that  the  old  instincts  of  the  Asiatic  had  survived 
and  had  burst  the  slight  bonds  imposed  by  a  veneer 
of  civilization,  and  that  Europe  was  once  more 
destined  to  face  the  horrible  specter  of  Asiatic 
conquest.  This  was  the  view  of  the  nations  of 
Europe  and  America.  The  other  side  was  pre- 
sented by  a  proclamation  jointly  issued  by  Japan 
and  China,  stating  in  plain  language  that  no  vitu- 
peration and  no  pleading  would  suffice  to  alter 
their  determination  to  rid  Asia  forever  of  what 
they  described  as  the  mischief-making  white  race, 
masterful,  it  was  acknowledged,  but  ignorant, 
cruel,  selfish  and  domineering.     The  massacre  of 


1 66     THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

the  Siberian  forces  had  been  absolutely  necessary 
to  convince  Europe  of  the  determination  and  abil- 
ity, as  well  as  the  resources,  that  lay  back  of  the 
public  notification  they  had  sent  out  that  Asia  must 
be  abandoned  by  the  whites.  They  had  been 
warned  that  extermination  was  intended  and  would 
be  ruthlessly  carried  out.  That  policy  was  to  be 
continued  until  the  continent  of  Asia  was  again  in 
the  possession  of  its  original  peoples,  free  from 
any  admixture  of  foreigners,  and  especially  of 
whites. 

"  A  lull  followed,  during  which,  for  the  sake  of 
concentrating  their  forces  for  another  conflict,  the 
whites  continued  their  sullen  retirement.  Ger- 
many, proud  and  haughty  as  she  was  disposed  to 
be,  joined  in  the  movement,  and  slowly  removed 
her  troops  and  citizens  from  India,  exhibiting  a 
reluctance  which  called  forth  a  little  prodding 
from  the  native  population  assisted  by  a  detach- 
ment of  troops  from  China,  and  snarling  and  show- 
ing her  teeth  like  a  tiger  driven  from  the  jungle. 
But  she  went,  like  the  rest. 

"  After  the  clearing  of  Asia,  of  course,  com- 
mercial relations  with  Europe  and  America  were 
cut  off  entirely,  and  all  means  of  intercommunica- 
tion were  severed,  so  that  for  fifty  years  the  na- 
tions of  Europe  knew  little  of  what  was  going  on 
the  other  side  of  the  Ural  Mountains.     Occasional 


THE  GREAT  EXPULSION         167 

attempts  to  learn  more  were  invariably  frustrated. 
Most  of  the  spies  were  caught  and  destroyed,  at 
any  rate  they  never  reappeared,  and  the  few  who 
managed  to  escape  all  perils  and  return  to  Europe 
brought  no  information,  for  they  had  not  been  able 
to  penetrate  beyond  the  outer  fringe  of  the  coun- 
tries they  attempted  to  enter.  And  so  passed  an- 
other fifty  years  or  so.  A  new  generation  had 
come  upon  the  scene,  and  the  great  catastrophe 
was  almost  forgotten,  excepting  for  the  occasional 
prophet  of  woe  who  would  remind  his  contempo- 
raries that  their  lesson  had  not  been  thoroughly 
learned  and  that  the  yellow  peril  still  lurked  be- 
hind the  forbidding  mountain  chains  that  sep- 
arated them  from  Europe. 

"  The  lesson,  as  it  appeared,  had  really  been 
given  in  vain.  The  white  nations  had  fully  re- 
cuperated from  the  terrible  blow  they  had  received 
and,  although  their  financial  burdens  were  almost 
beyond  endurance,  their  progress  in  the  art  and 
science  of  war  had  been  such,  thanks  to  their  con- 
stant practice  on  one  another,  that  confidence  had 
been  regained,  and  a  powerful  league  was  formed, 
with  pledges  of  enormous  masses  of  men  and  mili- 
tary supplies,  with  a  view  of  bringing  the  mastery 
of  the  world  once  more  to  the  supreme  test.  Their 
ablest  strategists  worked  for  years  over  the 
problems  involved,   and  their  plans  were  almost 


1 68     THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

ripe,  when  another  bolt  from  the  blue  was  launched 
upon  Europe  from  the  hitherto  silent  and  mys- 
terious East. 

"  It  seems  that  during  this  prolonged  interval 
of  peace,  with  all  sources  of  information  cut  off 
from  the  white  nations,  the  great  Empires  of 
Asia,  China,  India  and  Japan,  with  numerous 
auxiliaries,  had  been  gradually  creeping  toward 
the  eastern  confines  of  Europe,  and  they  now  had 
an  enormous  multitude  stretched  along  the  line, 
untold  millions  —  the  size  of  their  armies  never 
was  known  —  all  thoroughly  disciplined  and  un- 
der the  command  of  capable  men. 

"  Just  at  this  critical  time,  then,  when  Europe 
had  expected  to  take  Asia  unawares,  came  a  proc- 
lamation from  the  three  Emperors,  addressed  to 
no  individual,  but  to  the  entire  white  race,  a  notice 
that  their  preparations  for  war  were  well  known, 
that  they  had  been  constantly  watched  from  the  be- 
ginning, that  it  was  clearly  evident  that  the  dread- 
ful chastisement  of  fifty  years  ago  had  produced 
no  lasting  effect,  that  they  retained  all  their  former 
characteristics  as  a  meddling,  domineering  race, 
that  there  could  be  no  peace  for  anyone  in  their 
neighborhood,  and  consequently  the  three  Emper- 
ors, much  to  their  regret  on  account  of  the  blood- 
shed and  suffering  that  must  ensue,  had  come  to 
the  unanimous  and  irrevocable  decision,  in  which 


THE  GREAT  EXPULSION         169 

they  had  the  enthusiastic  support  of  their  armies 
and  people  that  the  white  race  must  leave  the  Old 
World  and  betake  themselves  to  the  New  one, 
upon  pain  of  extermination  If  they  refused. 

"  This  unprecedented  communication  was  re- 
ceived with  howls  of  defiance  and  derision.  A 
feverish  activity  set  In  immediately.  The  people 
of  Europe  no  longer  despised  their  enemy,  and 
recognized  the  magnitude  of  the  task  that  con- 
fronted them.  But  the  Emperors  were  already 
fully  prepared  and  without  further  delay,  crossed 
the  mountains  and  deployed  Immense  forces  all 
along  the  line,  armies  so  large  and  so  closely  in 
touch  with  one  another,  that  a  contest  seemed  al- 
most hopeless.  But  the  whites  never  lacked  cour- 
age, and  now  there  was  added  the  valor  of  des- 
pair. They  hurled  themselves  again  and  again 
at  the  steadily  advancing  foe,  but  were  able  to 
produce  no  apparent  impression  upon  them.  The 
steady  progress  of  the  Asiatic  forces  proved  irre- 
sistible, and  at  length,  finding  themselves  flanked, 
the  European  armies,  numbering  about  3,000,000 
of  men,  were  concentrated  in  what  seemed  to  be 
an  advantageous  position  In  the  Eastern  portion 
of  Germany  and  resolved  to  await  the  attack  and 
risk  their  fortunes  In  a  single  great  battle.  Their 
frantic  efforts  were  all  useless,  the  odds  were  too 
great,  the  yellow  armies  in  dense  masses  swung 


lyo    THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

around  their  sides  and  rear  with  relentless  precis- 
ion, enveloping  them  entirely,  and  this  huge  army 
was  shot  and  hewn  to  pieces,  only  a  few  thousand 
stragglers  escaping  out  of  that  immense  body  of 
men.  After  this  decisive  conflict  the  Emperors 
rested,  and  awaited  the  answer  to  their  ultimatum. 

"  The  blow  to  the  whites  was  terrific,  not  alone 
to  their  military  strength,  but  to  their  self-confi- 
dence, their  pride,  their  overweening  self-esteem. 
All  Europe  bewailed  her  losses.  Evei*y  house  was 
in  mourning  and  the  futility  of  further  resistance 
was  plain.  Their  religious  teachers  recognized  it 
as  a  chastisement  from  the  Almighty,  and  not  a 
few  were  ready  to  point  to  it  as  a  fulfillment  of  the 
prophecy  in  the  Revelation  of  St.  John. 

"  And  the  sixth  poured  out  his  bowl  upon  the 
great  river,  the  river  Euphrates;  and  the  water 
thereof  was  dried  up,  that  the  way  might  be  made 
ready  for  the  kings  that  come  from  the  sun-rising. 
And  I  saw  coming  out  of  the  mouth  of  the  dragon, 
and  out  of  the  mouth  of  the  beast,  and  out  of  the 
mouth  of  the  false  prophet,  three  unclean 
spirits,  as  it  were  frogs;  for  they  are  spirits 
of  demons,  working  signs;  which  go  forth  unto 
the  kings  of  the  whole  world,  to  gather  them  to- 
gether unto  the  war  of  the  great  day  of  God,  the 
Almighty.  And  they  gathered  them  together  into 
the  place  which  is  called  in  Hebrew,  Armageddon." 


THE  GREAT  EXPULSION         171 

"  How  plainly  it  is  all  foretold,  they  said.  The 
kings  are  come  from  the  sun-rising.  The  dragon 
is  China,  the  beast  is  Japan,  and  the  false  prophet, 
that  is  India,  with  her  Buddha.  The  frogs  are 
the  yellow  bellies.  The  sixth  bowl  has  been 
emptied,  the  war  was  the  war  of  the  great  day  of 
God,  the  Almighty,  and  the  place  was  the  plain  of 
Armageddon. 

"  Many  attempts  were  afterward  made  to  esti- 
mate the  size  of  the  Oriental  armies.  The  mili- 
tary men  for  the  most  part  agreed  that  for  the 
carrying  out  of  their  encircling  movement  in  the 
smooth  and  machine-like  manner  it  was  conducted, 
not  less  than  twenty  millions  of  men  were  neces- 
sary, and  a  few  even  put  the  figures  as  high  as 
forty  million.  The  Europeans  were  at  a  loss  to 
understand  how  this  vast  force  could  have  been 
fed,  clothed  and  properly  supplied  with  the  muni- 
tions of  war,  but,  so  far  as  was  ever  ascertained, 
the  explanation  lay  in  the  fact  that  the  Oriental 
army  was  really  a  moving  population.  The  long 
years  through  which  the  affairs  of  Asia  had  been 
a  sealed  book  to  Europe  had  been  occupied  with 
successive  migrations  of  the  military  forces,  with 
all  their  women  and  children,  across  the  continent 
to  the  Eastern  frontier  of  Europe.  At  the  neces- 
sary intervals  they  halted  as  long  as  was  necessary 
to  break  up  the  land  and  sow  and  harvest  a  crop. 


172     THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

Vast  herds  of  horses  and  cattle  were  taken  along, 
and  thus  ample  supplies  of  food,  of  the  frugal 
sort  that  seems  to  be  sufficient  to  satisfy  and  sustain 
the  Oriental  were  always  at  hand.  Portable  fac- 
tories for  arms  and  ammunition  were  transported, 
with  some  difficulty,  from  place  to  place,  roads  con- 
structed and  water  courses  dammed  and  bridged, 
and  all  done  so  slowly  and  deliberately  that  when 
they  finally  arrived  at  their  destination  they  were 
prepared  for  immediate  action.  They  had  more 
than  fifty  years  for  this  operation,  and  the  event 
showed  that  it  had  been  well  planned  and  well  exe- 
cuted. Once  again  the  haughty  European  bowed 
before  the  superior  might  of  the  Asiatic." 

At  this  point  my  host  interrupted  to  say  that 
our  time  was  growing  short,  and  we  still  had  our 
visit  to  the  storehouse  to  make.  The  librarian, 
who  had  delivered  his  harangue  with  great  en- 
thusiasm, nodded  and  went  on. 

"  There  is  not  much  more  that  I  can  tell  you. 
With  wailing  and  much  gnashing  of  teeth,  with 
muttered  threats  of  vengeance,  the  whites  pre- 
pared to  abandon  the  territory  that  had  been  held 
from  time  immemorial  by  their  ancestry.  All 
their  hallowed  shrines,  the  monuments  and  other 
structures  that  commemorated  the  past  glory  and 
power  of  the  race,  the  lands  and  forests,  the 
streams  and  broad  and  fertile  fields  that  were  dear 


THE  GREAT  EXPULSION         173 

to  them  from  their  associations  and  memories,  all, 
all  had  to  be  left  behind.  They  were  allowed  to 
remove  whatever  they  could,  but  that  was  com- 
paratively little.  Sporadic  expulsions  had  taken 
place  in  previous  ages,  but  the  agony  and  suffering 
caused  by  the  parting  from  all  that  was  held  dear 
had  been  confined  to  a  single  people  and  a  compar- 
atively restricted  locality.  But  this  was  on  a  huge 
scale,  and  entailed  untold  calamities  in  its  train. 

"  Commerce  had,  in  this  age,  attained  enormous 
proportions  and  all  the  vessels  that  covered  the 
oceans  were  pressed  into  the  service  of  the  East. 
About  10,000  transports  were  collected  and  were 
kept  busy  assisting  in  the  transfer.  These  vessels 
carried,  on  an  average,  1,000  persons  apiece,  and  in 
this  way  the  400,000,000  of  people  were  conveyed 
to  the  Western  Hemisphere  in  about  50  trips, 
which  took  about  two  years.  The  more  northerly 
nations,  of  Teutonic  blood,  and  the  Russians,  of 
the  Slavs,  mostly  went  to  North  America,  and  the 
Southern  nations  to  South  America.  There  were 
many  exceptions,  of  course,  notably  a  large  body 
of  Germans  who  preferred  the  Southern  temper- 
ate zone,  and  a  considerable  number  of  French 
and  Spanish  who  chose  the  warmer  sections  of  the 
Northern  countries.  But  the  general  trend  was 
as  I  have  stated. 

"  And  that  was  '  the  great  expulsion.' 


174    THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

"  As  the  last  contingent  left  the  shores  of  Eu- 
rope the  officer  In  command  received  this  farewell 
message  from  the  three  Emperors: 

"  '  Now  you  can  quarrel  with  one  another  In 
peace.'  " 

With  a  courteous  bow  he  ended  his  discourse, 
and  in  deep  meditation  on  the  dreadful  history 
that  had  been  recounted  to  me,  I  followed  my  host 
from  the  hall. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

THE    STOREROOM 

WE  passed  down  a  long  corridor,  with  the 
same  exquisite  finish  of  walls  and  flooring 
and  entered  another  spacious  room,  which  prov-ed 
to  be  the  storeroom.  There  were  several  persons 
already  in  the  room,  on  our  arrival,  but  they  paid 
us  the  compliment  of  only  a  cursory  glance  and 
went  on  with  the  business  that  had  brought  them 
there.  The  walls  were  lined  with  shelving  con- 
taining all  kinds  of  goods,  and  as  I  gazed  about 
me  I  was  reminded  somewhat  of  a  general  country 
store,  or  of  a  large  department  store,  in  the  city, 
where  everything  needed  can  be  purchased  with- 
out leaving  the  building.  There  were  packages 
of  cloth,  of  all  hues  and  textures,  barrels  and  boxes 
of  merchandise,  bins  containing  grains,  coffees,  and 
the  like,  chemicals,  in  fact,  all  kinds  of  supplies  re- 
quired for  utility  or  comfort.  There  were  sev- 
eral attendants,  alert  young  men  and  women,  who 
did  up  packages  as  required,  or  directed  those  who 
carried  bags  or  other  receptacles  to  the  places 
where  they  would  find  the  articles  they  were  after. 

175 


176    THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

Of  course,  after  what  I  had  already  learned  of 
this  singular  community,  I  did  not  expect  to  see 
any  purchasing  of  goods  or  any  use  of  money,  but 
it  seemed  odd,  nevertheless,  to  see  no  scales  or 
weighing  machines  in  use  anywhere.  But  on  re- 
flection I  saw  that  they  would  have  been  superflu- 
ous, for  each  visitor  took  as  much  as  he  or  she 
needed,  and  any  adjustments  necessary  for  com- 
binations of  any  kind  would  be  done  at  home. 
Some  of  the  callers  had  to  ask  for  directions,  but 
others  went  to  the  shelves  or  bins  and  helped  them- 
selves. While  we  were  looking  about  the  room, 
two  men  and  a  woman  entered  with  new  supplies, 
one  of  the  men  with  what  appeared  to  be  small 
brass  hardware  of  some  kind,  which  he  dumped  on 
the  floor  and  left  for  the  attendants  to  sort  out, 
the  other  with  a  huge  coil  of  copper  wire,  about 
as  much  as  he  could  carry  without  staggering, 
which  he  also  dumped  on  the  floor,  as  he  rubbed 
his  shoulder  in  relief,  and  the  woman  with  a  lot 
of  woven  stuff,  which  she  carefully  deposited  with 
her  own  hands  on  one  of  the  shelves  containing 
other  stuffs  of  similar  appearance. 

"  Everything  here  practically  explains  itself," 
remarked  my  friend.  "  But  there  are  some  bins 
that  may  Interest  you,  who  retain,  I  presume,  some 
of  the  barbaric  tastes  of  your  people,"  and  he  con- 
ducted me  to  the  farther  end  of  the  apartment. 


THE  STOREROOM  177 

What  a  sight  was  there !  Precious  stones  and 
precious  metals  in  profusion.  Boxes  full  of  gems, 
diamonds,  rubies,  emeralds,  cut  and  uncut,  bins 
half  filled  to  the  brim  with  gold,  silver  and  cop- 
per, in  ingots  and  sheets.  As  we  were  looking 
them  over,  a  man  came  up  and  began  turning  over 
the  plates  of  gold.  My  guide  held  a  brief  con- 
versation with  him  and  then  told  me  that  the 
negro  was  a  plumber,  and  was  selecting  some 
sheets  of  metal  for  the  lining  of  a  bath  tub. 

"  It  is  for  my  next  door  neighbor,"  he  explained ; 
"  he  has  had  a  silver  lining,  but  finds  it  tarnishes 
too  easily,  and  he  is  having  it  replaced  by  gold, 
like  mine,  which  he  greatly  admires."  As  he 
spoke  another  negro  came  along  and  carelessly 
threw  several  ingots  of  gold  into  the  bin  containing 
the  others. 

"  A  miner,"  said  my  friend,  and  led  me  a  little 
way  along  the  wall  to  a  row  of  metal  boxes,  one 
of  which  he  opened,  simply  raising  the  lid,  for  it 
was  unlocked.  Inside,  to  my  surprise  I  saw 
money,  bills  and  coin,  not  unlike  what  I  had  been 
more  or  less  familiar  with  since  childhood. 

"  Yes,"  he  said,  seeing  my  look  of  interroga- 
tion, "  this  is  money.  You  see  we  do  have  to  use 
it  once  in  a  while.  Whenever  my  duty  calls  me 
to  the  other  side,  I  have  to  take  some  with  me  for 
use  in  those  parts.     Once  in  a  while,  too,  one  of 


178     THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

our  young  people  will  take  a  notion  to  see  some- 
thing of  the  world,  and  he  comes  here  and  takes 
what  he  thinks  he  shall  need." 

So  saying,  he  took  a  considerable  sum  from 
the  box  and  tucked  it  away  in  his  clothing.  He 
also  took  several  ingots  of  gold,  with  a  purpose 
which  I  did  not  learn  until  afterwards. 

"  When  you  return  to  your  people  for  good," 
he  said,  "  you  are  welcome  to  take  all  the  money 
you  want,  and  also  to  load  your  pockets  with  all 
the  gold,  silver  and  gems  you  think  you  can  carry 
with  you.  We  have  plenty  here,  and  they  are 
little  used.  A  few  of  the  younger  women  seem 
fond  of  precious  stones  as  ornaments,  but  are 
rather  looked  down  upon  for  it  by  their  compan- 
ions, who  mostly  prefer  flowers.  We  use  them 
chiefly  in  architectural  work,  where  ornamenta- 
tion of  a  special  kind  is  thought  desirable.  In 
these  other  boxes,"  and  he  opened  two  of  them  to 
show  me,  "  are  monies  of  other  nations  in  the 
Western  Hemisphere  and  of  many  on  this  side  of 
the  ocean  in  Europe  and  Asia,  for  the  other  peo- 
ples are  not  yet  quite  as  far  advanced  as  we  are, 
and  still  cling  to  many  of  their  old  habits.  But 
they  are  progressing.  They  are  progressing. 
But  now  let  us  be  off.  It  is  nearly  four  o'clock, 
and  that  is  the  hour  I  had  fixed  upon  for  our 
journey." 


THE  STOREROOM  179 

So  we  left  the  building,  I  with  my  brain  in  a 
whirl,  and  he  with  the  steady  dignified  gait  which 
so  became  him.  We  directed  our  steps  toward 
his  house.  On  arriving  there  we  saw  nothing  of 
the  rest  of  the  family,  but  found  food  upon  the 
table,  and  we  sat  down  and  partook  of  it  with  ap- 
petite. 

After  the  meal  he  took  me  to  the  rear  of  the 
house,  and  I  had  my  first  opportunity  to  see  at 
close  range  one  of  the  traveling  or  flying  machines. 
There  were  two  standing  side  by  side,  one  much 
larger  than  the  other  and  of  somewhat  different 
construction. 

"  This  is  the  one  we  take,"  he  said,  and  im- 
mediately began  to  busy  himself  about  the  larger 
of  the  two.  He  went  over  it  carefully  on  every 
side,  examining  everything  minutely,  and  testing 
it  here  and  there,  as  a  gentle  whir  now  and  then 
indicated.  When  he  was  satisfied,  he  turned  to 
me  with  the  remark: 

"  Everything  is  ready,  but  it  may  be  rather  cool 
over  the  water,  and  I  will  get  some  wraps.  Don't 
meddle  with  the  machine  while  I  am  gone,"  and  he 
entered  the  house. 

The  caution  was  entirely  unnecessary,  for  I 
would  not  have  touched  the  thing  with  a  ten  foot 
pole.  But  I  took  the  opportunity  to  walk  around 
it  and  view  it  from  all  sides.      It  looked  to  me  like 


i8o    THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

a  sort  of  coach  body  set  and  firmly  fixed  upon  a 
platform,  which  extended  a  couple  of  feet  or  so 
on  each  side  of  it.  In  front  was  what  I  took  to 
be  a  windshield,  highly  polished  and  tapering  to 
a  point,  looking  like  silver,  but  I  have  no  idea  what 
the  material  was.  At  the  rear  was  a  sort  of  dy- 
namo, and  a  propeller,  the  latter  directed  back- 
wards, but  apparently  provided  with  a  sort  of 
universal  joint  enabling  it  to  be  shifted  in  any  di- 
rection, though  how  such  a  joint  could  be  com- 
patible with  the  necessary  stability  and  security  I 
could  not  imagine. 

In  the  coach  were  comfortable  seats  and  sev- 
eral small  wheels  and  levers,  whose  uses,  of  course, 
I  was  unable  to  divine.  And  now  my  friend 
emerged  from  the  building  with  a  load  of  stuff  and 
came  over.  He  threw  the  wraps  on  the  seats  and 
tucked  several  small  packages  underneath. 

"  Food  for  the  journey,"  he  said,  and  walked 
around  the  machine,  making  a  final  inspection. 

"  Well,  we  are  ready  now.  Take  your  seat, 
please,"  and  I  did  so,  at  the  same  time  folding  one 
of  the  soft,  thick  blankets  or  robes  about  me,  with 
a  curious  feeling  that  this  was  to  be  the  most 
momentous  experience  of  my  lifetime. 


CHAPTER  XV 

THE    JOURNEY 

THE  negro  walked  around  the  machine  for 
the  last  time,  took  his  seat  beside  me, 
wrapped  his  robes  about  him,  and  turned  a  small 
W'heel  directly  in  front  of  his  seat.  The  machine 
rose  steadily  in  the  air,  in  a  vertical  direction  with- 
out any  preliminary  start  in  contact  with  the 
ground,  until  we  had  reached  a  considerable  height, 
which  I  was  unable  to  estimate,  having  never 
ascended  in  a  balloon  or  aeroplane  before.  When 
things  began  to  look  pretty  small  below,  and  I 
thought  we  must  be  at  least  a  mile  up,  he  swung 
a  small  lever  on  his  right  hand  and  a  huge  pair  of 
wings,  which  I  had  not  seen  in  my  cursory  survey 
of  the  machine  so  nicely  had  they  been  folded  or 
tucked  away,  shot  out  from  the  sides  rising  and 
curving  a  little  higher  than  the  body  itself,  like 
the  wings  of  a  monstrous  bird.  They  were  mo- 
tionless, and  in  reply  to  my  question,  I  got  a  curt 
reply  that  they  were  of  use  simply  to  maintain  an 
even  keel  and  preserve  a  proper  balance.  He  was 
still  busy  with   his   manipulations,   and   I   under- 


i82     THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

stood  that  I  must  remain  quiet  for  a  time.  We 
now  stopped  rising,  swung  around  and  headed,  so 
far  as  I  could  judge  from  the  compass,  in  a  bee  line 
toward  the  northwest.  The  handling  of  wheels 
and  levers  now  ceased,  and  my  companion  settled 
back  in  his  seat  with  a  grunt  of  satisfaction. 

We  were  now  scudding  along  at  a  very  rapid 
rate.  I  could  see  on  our  right  a  vast  extent  of 
settled  country,  covered  with  small  houses  such  as 
I  had  already  seen  so  many  of,  and  on  our  left 
stretched  a  considerable  territory  that  seemed  to 
be  unsettled,  much  of  it  covered  with  forests,  while 
straight  ahead,  and  far  in  the  distance  I  could  see 
the  ocean. 

Now,  I  thought,  is  the  time  for  me  to  draw  out 
a  little  more  information  from  this  black  phe- 
nomenon, and  so  I  ventured  to  say : 

"  The  supplies  of  food  you  packed  away  for 
the  journey  we  are  taking  seem  to  me  hardly 
enough  for  a  trip  of  six  or  seven  thousand  miles. 
By  the  way,  where  do  you  expect  to  land?  " 

"  Somewhere  in  the  vicinity  of  New  York. 
Probably  on  some  small  island  near  the  eastern 
end  of  Long  Island.  I  have  a  number  of  friends 
there,  who  will  receive  me  as  a  guest  for  a  short 
stay,  and  furnish  me  with  an  appropriate  change 
of  clothes.  We  have  to  provide  for  that  before- 
hand, for  it  would  never  do  to  allow  this  machine 


THE  JOURNEY  183 

to  be  inspected  by  a  white  man,  or  to  have  them 
know  who  I  am,  and  what  I  am  there  for.  As  to 
the  food  supply,  how  long  do  you  suppose  we 
are  going  to  be  in  making  that  distance?  " 

"  Oh,  a  week  or  so,"  I  replied. 

"  The  trip  will  take  us  about  thirty-five  hours," 
he  said  with  a  smile;  "  we  are  going  now  about  two 
hundred  miles  an  hour,  which  will  carry  us  seven 
thousand  miles  in  thirty-five  hours,  and  bring  us 
to  our  stopping  place  at  three  o'clock  in  the  morn- 
ing or  thereabouts.  I  always  calculate  the  jour- 
ney so  as  to  make  the  few  hundred  miles  when  we 
are  approaching  the  coast  during  the  night,  to 
avoid  detection." 

Then  he  added:  "You  see,  we  are  already 
over  the  water." 

And  sure  enough  we  had  begun  to  cross  the 
ocean,  which  rolled  and  heaved  far  below.  Now 
we  began  to  descend  and  were  soon  racing  along 
only  a  few  hundred  feet  above  the  surface,  where 
we  could  hear  the  noise  of  breaking  wave  tops,  for 
the  wind  was  getting  high.  In  a  few  minutes 
we  were  out  of  sight  of  land,  and  shooting  ahead 
like  a  shot  from  a  cannon.  It  began  to  grow  a 
little  cool  as  the  evening  drew  on,  and  the  negro 
bent  over  and  adjusted  some  small  apparatus  near 
the  floor,  the  nature  of  which  I  could  not  discern. 
As  he  straightened  himself  up  he  said  briefly: 


1 84     THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

"  It  will  be  cool  during  the  night,  and  we  must 
be  warmed  up  a  little." 

Sure  enough,  in  a  few  minutes,  I  felt  a  gentle 
warmth  stealing  around  me,  warming  the  seat  I 
occupied,  warming  my  feet,  and  warming  to  some 
extent  even  the  air  of  the  coach  in  which  we  were 
traveling.  I  felt  both  comfortable  and  secure. 
After  all  I  had  seen  and  learned  I  had  so  much 
confidence  in  my  companion  that  I  felt  as  safe  as  if 
I  had  been  traveling  in  a  Pullman  car. 

Neither  of  us  spoke  for  a  while,  but  presently 
he  turned  to  me  and  smiled. 

"  I  am  going  to  give  you  a  bit  of  a  surprise," 
he  said,  "  but  don't  be  frightened,  whatever  may 
happen." 

So  saying  he  gave  the  small  wheel  directly  in 
front  of  his  seat  a  vigorous  twist,  and  we  shot  up- 
wards with  a  velocity  that  scared  me  half  to  death. 
The  air  rushed  by  us  from  above,  where  we  were 
not  protected  so  well  as  in  front,  with  a  force  and 
a  loud  whistling  that  held  me  speechless.  I  clung 
to  my  seat,  expecting  any  moment  to  be  blown 
away,  and  my  face  must  have  expressed  vividly  the 
horror  and  fright  I  was  suffering  from,  for  as  he 
glanced  at  me  he  gave  the  wheel  another  twirl 
and  we  fell  rapidly  to  our  former  level,  and  con- 
tinued to  forge  straight  ahead. 

"  I  merely  wanted  to  give  you  a  little  lesson," 


THE  JOURNEY  185 

he  said,  "  but  I  am  sorry  It  affected  you  so  unpleas- 
antly. That  was  the  effect  of  the  moon.  I  shut 
off  our  connection  with  the  earth  entirely  for  a 
moment,  and  so  the  attraction  of  gravitation  drew 
us  upward.  It  would  not  have  taken  us  long  to 
rise  out  of  our  atmosphere.  I  see  your  nose  Is 
bleeding.     I  did  not  mean  to  go  so  high." 

"  The  moon !  "  I  exclaimed,  hardly  yet  recov- 
ered from  my  nerve-wrecking  experience. 

"  The  moon,  to  be  sure.  In  the  ordinary  use 
of  these  machines  we  cannot,  of  course,  cut  loose 
from  the  earth.  How  to  graduate  the  pull  down- 
ward so  as  to  allow  us  to  rise  easily  and  maintain 
any  level  we  choose  in  the  air,  was  an  extremely 
difficult  problem,  and  one  that  our  scientists  were 
at  work  upon  for  nearly  five  hundred  years  before 
it  was  solved.  Our  methods  are  now  perfected. 
By  an  ingenious  arrangement  of  slides  In  the  bot- 
tom of  the  machine,  with  myriads  of  minute  per- 
forations of  the  Insulating  material,  we  are  able  to 
regulate  the  pull  downward  and  set  it  off  against 
the  pull  upward  of  the  sun  or  moon,  so  that  we 
can  remain  suspended  at  any  level  we  please.  The 
balance  alone  sometimes  troubles  the  novice. 
Here  we  are,  for  Instance,  over  the  ocean.  We 
cannot  fall.  There  are  no  boilers  or  cylinders  or 
tanks  to  explode,  as  in  your  aeroplanes.  There  Is 
no  fuel  to  leak  away.     There  is  no  possibility  of 


1 86     THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

breakage  in  any  part,  for  all  of  our  mechanical 
work,  being  done,  as  you  have  seen,  with  no  hurry 
and  no  time  limit,  is  absolutely  flawless.  There  is 
nothing  that  can  break  under  the  application  of 
any  force  short  of  a  bolt  of  lightning.  If  that 
should  strike  us,  of  course,  it  would  be  the  end 
of  everything  for  you  and  me.  But  such  chances 
are  infinitesimal  and  we  may  disregard  them.  But 
the  great  danger  for  the  novice  is  that  of  turning 
turtle  in  a  heavy  and  unexpected  gust  of  wind,  a 
hurricane,  for  example.  We  are  pretty  well  pro- 
vided against  anything  of  the  sort,  however,  by 
the  wings,  and  by  the  fact  that  the  center  of  grav- 
ity of  the  body  of  the  machine  lies  so  low.  We 
have,  in  addition,  at  the  sides  and  near  the  edge 
of  the  floor,  numerous  small  slides,  by  the  manipu- 
lation of  which  we  can  tip  the  machine  to  one  side 
or  the  other  as  little  or  as  much  as  we  please. 
This  requires  constant  attention,  and  though,  in 
our  ordinary  travel  over  land,  it  may  usually  be 
neglected  to  some  extent,  or  at  least  seldom  re- 
quired, excepting  in  storms,  and  then  we  generally 
descend  wherever  we  happen  to  be,  out  over  the 
ocean,  as  we  are,  it  becomes  a  matter  of  vast  im- 
portance and  requires  constant  watchfulness. 
That  is  the  chief  reason  why  I  travel  so  swiftly. 
I  shall  have  to  remain  awake  until  we  reach  our 
destination,  which  means  about  a  day  and  a  half, 


THE  JOURNEY  187 

including  two  nights.  And  at  my  age,"  he  added, 
"  I  like  to  have  my  regular  sleep." 

"So  I  should  think!  How  smoothly  we  are 
running!  And  with  so  little  noise.  But,  travel- 
ing at  the  rate  we  are  going,  are  you  not  afraid  of 
heated  bearings?  I  should  think  there  would  be 
danger  of  that." 

"  Our  mechanical  work  is  so  perfectly  fitted  that 
friction  is  brought  down  to  a  minimum,  and,  be- 
sides, the  bearings  are  constructed  of  an  alloy 
which  renders  them  almost  frictionless.  Then 
there  are  special  arrangements  by  which  the  little 
heat  that  may  be  developed  is  rapidly  dissipated, 
and  we  are  never  troubled  in  that  way.  As  to  the 
noise,  the  construction  of  the  machine  does  away 
with  that  almost  completely.  The  aeroplanes  you 
remember  among  your  own  people  were  not  prop- 
erly put  together,  and  were  not  really  flying  ma- 
chines, but  box  kites,  pushed  by  a  motor  instead 
of  pulled  by  a  string.  There  were  so  many  wires 
and  ribs  and  badly  adjusted  parts  that  the  strain, 
while  they  were  in  operation,  produced  a  terrible 
rattling  and  clatter,  while  the  only  noise  produced 
by  this  machine,  as  you  have  noticed,  is  the  slight 
whir  due  to  the  passage  of  air  through  the  pro- 
peller, and  the  rushing  or  whistling  produced  by 
the  air  ahead  as  it  is  cleft  by  our  prow  or  frontal 
shield." 


1 88     THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

We  were  still  rushing  along  on  the  same  level 
toward  the  northwest.  Beneath  was  the  gray, 
heaving  ocean  and  above  the  clear  sky,  brilliant 
with  stars.  Nothing  else  was  in  sight.  We  had 
seen  no  vessel  since  we  started,  and  now  the  sun 
had  set  long  ago  and  darkness  had  settled  down. 
I  was  wearied  by  all  I  had  gone  through  during 
this  eventful  day,  the  monotonous  gentle  whir 
of  the  machine  was  soothing  in  its  effect. 
I  was  warm  and  comfortable  in  an  easy  and  lux- 
urious cushioned  seat,  free  from  all  worry  and 
anxiety,  and  began  to  feel  drowsy  in  the  extreme. 

"  Go  to  sleep.  There  is  no  reason  why  you 
should  remain  awake,"  was  the  last  thing  I  heard, 
and  then  came  oblivion. 

When  I  awoke,  the  sun  was  up  and  shining 
down  upon  us,  and  the  sky  was  cloudless.  We 
were  in  for  another  beautiful  day.  I  greeted  my 
companion  with  a  cheerful  "  Good  morning," 
which  he  returned.  I  could  see  in  his  face  or  man- 
ner not  the  slightest  indication  that  he  had  passed 
a  sleepless  night.  We  were  still  heading  in  the 
same  direction,  and  were  still  alone,  with  nothing  in 
sight  but  ocean  and  sky.  We  breakfasted  together 
upon  the  simple  viands  he  had  provided,  with  a 
draught  of  wine  for  myself  and  of  water  for  him. 

"Whereabouts  do  you  suppose  we  are?"  I 
asked,  at  length. 


THE  JOURNEY  189 

"  I  do  not  know  exactly.  We  are  nearly  half 
way  to  our  destination." 

"Do  you  take  no  observations?"  I  ventured 
to  say,  although  I  had  already  seen  that  he  was 
not  prepared  for  that, 

"  No,"  he  replied,  "  they  would  be  useless.  I 
determined  my  direction  before  we  started,  and  we 
travel  in  a  bee  line.  When  we  are  nearing  the 
line  of  travel  for  other  vessels,  I  shall  rise  so  as 
to  be  out  of  sight,  and  we  shall  be  able  to  deter- 
mine our  location  from  above." 

"  This  is  the  last  day  I  shall  be  able  to  converse 
with  you  without  the  danger  of  being  overheard, 
and  so  I  am  anxious  to  have  you  understand  why 
I  have  been  showing  and  explaining  so  many  things 
to  you,  and  I  want  you  to  promise  me  that  after 
your  return  to  your  own  people  you  will  tell  them 
what  you  have  seen,  how  we  live,  and  how  de- 
termined we  are  to  submit  to  no  Interference  from 
others." 

"  Surely,"  I  said,  "  I  shall  be  only  too  eager  to 
tell  about  all  that  I  have  learned,  but  I  am  afraid, 
after  what  you  have  been  telling  me,  that  I  shall 
be  much  out  of  place  among  these  moderns,  and 
probably  unable  to  understand  their  language." 

"  You  will  have  no  trouble  on  that  score,"  was 
the  reply;  "  your  people  have  attained  on  the  pres- 
ent upgrade,  very  nearly  the  same  position  you 


190     THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

left  them  in.  You  will  find,  of  course,  none  of 
your  former  friends.  They  were  long  since  dust. 
But  the  material  surroundings  will  seem  familiar, 
and  a  few  years  ago,  about  a  century,  in  fact,  a 
great  wave  of  enthusiasm  swept  over  North 
America  in  regard  to  their  ancestral  greatness,  and 
among  the  other  things  there  was  brought  about 
a  great  revival  of  the  language  of  their  fathers. 
So,  when  you  land,  you  will  find  them  speaking 
the  same  English  to  which  you  are  accustomed, 
with  only  slight  variations  of  words  and  pro- 
nunciation, quite  insufficient  to  cause  you  any  dif- 
ficulty in  conversing  with  them.  They  will  prob- 
ably think  you  are  a  foreigner  from  South  Amer- 
ica, who  has  learned  English  from  a  book,  but 
you  will  get  on  well  enough. 

"  And  now,"  he  continued,  "  let  me  warn  you 
what  you  are  going  to  find  in  your  old  home. 
There  have  been  some  changes  in  the  coast  line 
around  New  York.  You  will  find  the  East  River 
somewhat  wider  and  the  Hudson  somewhat  nar- 
rower than  you  have  known  them.  The  lower 
part  of  the  city  has  sunken  a  little,  and  the  cellars 
and  lower  stories  of  many  buildings  have  been 
abandoned.  Staten  Island  is  considerably  smaller, 
and  the  entire  coast  of  New  Jersey  has  been 
submerged  for  varying  distances  back  from  the 
old  line  as  you  knew  it.      Coney  Island  is  beneath 


THE  JOURNEY  191 

the  waves.  You  will  not  see  many  other  changes. 
You  will  find  the  same  old  roaring  city,  with  Its 
electric  lines  of  communication  underground  and 
above  ground.  Their  old  aeroplanes  have  not 
been  brought  out  from  the  dust-bin  of  antiquity. 
They  are  looked  upon,  I  believe,  as  tending  in  the 
wrong  direction,  and  as  having  been  a  sort  of  toy. 
Your  inventors  are  working  on  the  problem  of 
navigating  the  air,  but  along  entirely  different 
lines,  I  am  told,  and  with  fair  prospects  of  suc- 
cess. 

"  But  more  important  matters  remain.  You 
will  find  your  countrymen  still  groaning  and  sweat- 
ing and  snarling  and  quarreling  in  the  fetters  of 
an  external  government  not  so  very  different  from 
the  one  you  had  been  living  under.  Every  man, 
woman  and  child  you  will  find  constantly  objecting 
to  and  resisting  the  imposition  of  another's  will 
over  theirs.  Whenever  they  speak  of  us  at  all 
they  call  us  the  '  nigger  anarchists,'  and  yet  they 
themselves  are  all  anarchists  at  heart.  There  is 
not  one  of  them  who  is  not  constantly  resenting 
the  restraint  put  upon  his  activities  by  the  law  of 
the  land.  The  meanest  criminal  can  always  jus- 
tify himself  for  what  he  has  done.  No  one  acts 
without  a  motive  which  at  the  time  of  the  action 
appears  to  him  the  best.  And  there  is  no  person 
among  you  who,   in  the  performance  of  any  ac- 


192     THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

tion,  does  not  resent  the  interference  of  another. 
You  call  yourselv^es  a  law-abiding  people,  and  so 
you  are, —  under  compulsion.  When  you  talk  of 
the  necessity  of  laws,  you  mean  that  they  are  nec- 
essary to  restrain  the  activities  of  other  persons, 
not  your  own.  And  the  richer  and  more  powerful 
a  man  may  be,  the  more  keenly  he  feels  that  the 
laws  do  not  apply  to  him,  but  that  he  is  a  law  unto 
himself.  And  in  all  this  welter  of  law  and  viola- 
tions of  law,  none  of  you  see  that  the  law  itself 
produces  the  violent  acts,  that  your  crimes  and 
misdemeanors  are  to  a  large  extent  induced  by  the 
very  means  that  have  been  devised  to  suppress  or 
prevent  them.  A  man  is  but  a  grown-up  boy,  and 
there  is  no  surer  way  to  have  your  apples  stolen 
than  to  put  up  a  trespass  sign  in  the  orchard. 
Stolen  waters  will  always  be  sweet  and  bread  eaten 
in  secret,  pleasant. 

"  Tell  your  countrymen  from  me  that  law  cre- 
ates the  malefactor,  that  repression  makes  rebels. 
that  happiness  comes  to  men  who  are  the  masters 
of  their  own  lives,  that  no  man,  as  the  great 
Lincoln  said,  is  good  enough  to  govern  the  ac- 
tions of  another  man,  that  freedom  is  the  watch- 
word of  humanity;  that  the  love  of  money  is  the 
root  of  all  evil;  that  greed  produces  misery  and 
never  gives  satisfaction;  that  charity  from  rich  to 
poor  is  another  name  for  injustice;  that  the  earth 


THE  JOURNEY  193 

can  produce  a  plenty  for  all;  that  none  should  be 
rich  and  none  should  be  poor;  and  that  every  ac- 
cumulation of  property  is  the  result  of  conscious 
or  unconscious  theft,  no  matter  how  its  nature  may 
be  disguised  under  the  euphonious  titles  of  fore- 
sight, shrewdness  or  thrift. 

"  And  then  tell  them  what  you  have  seen  among 
the  '  nigger  anarchists,'  an  immense  community  of 
persons,  living  simple  lives,  with  illness  almost  un- 
known, working  and  playing  and  visiting  when 
and  as  they  wish,  with  every  individual  following 
his  own  inclinations  without  outside  interference, 
with  no  money,  no  law,  no  courts,  no  police,  no 
army,  no  crime,  no  rich  and  no  poor,  living  ami- 
cably together  as  neighbors,  always  willing  to  help 
one  another,  tolerant  of  one  another's  opinions, 
sympathetic  in  case  of  injury  or  death,  with  com- 
fortable dwellings  and  magnificent  public  build- 
ings constructed  by  skillful  and  unselfish  citizens, 
with  plenty  to  eat  and  drink,  with  shelter,  clothing 
and  warmth  free  to  all,  with  incomparable  means 
of  communicating  with  each  other,  and,  as  you 
will  know  from  your  personal  observation  before 
you  deliver  this  message,  with  impregnable  means 
of  defense  against  all  foreign  aggression. 

"  And  then  tell  them  that  the  *  nigger  anar- 
chists '  are  willing  to  share  these  blessings  with 
them,  that  if  the  whites  can  reconcile  themselves 


194     THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

to  the  idea  of  abandoning,  once  for  all,  their 
racial  failing  of  thinking  it  a  duty  to  regulate  the 
rest  of  the  world  in  accordance  with  their  own 
ideas,  if  they  will  make  up  their  minds  to  confine 
their  activities  strictly  to  their  own  affairs,  and 
specially  to  abandon  forever  all  attempts  to  inter- 
fere with  my  people,  we  are  willing  to  impart  our 
special  knowledge  to  them,  to  share  with  them  the 
extraordinary  facilities  now  possessed  by  ourselves 
alone,  and  that  we  will  give  them,  notwithstanding 
the  risk  to  ourselves  from  their  possible  relapse, 
all  the  advice  and  assistance  that  we  are  able  to 
render,  to  guide  them  to  as  happy  and  contented 
an  existence  as  we  lead  ourselves,  so  that  there 
may  be  no  more  crime,  no  more  misery,  no  more 
poverty,  and  no  more  misfortune  among  them,  but 
that  their  entire  people  may  pass  their  lives  in  per- 
fect amity  with  one  another  and  with  the  rest  of 
the  world,  and  when  their  time  comes,  may  go 
with  a  clear  conscience  to  meet  their  God." 

For  a  few  minutes  after  this  solemn  appeal,  I 
remained  silent.  I  hardly  knew  what  to  reply, 
but  at  length  I  ventured  to  say: 

"  I  will  deliver  your  message  to  my  countrymen, 
but  am  afraid  it  will  fall  on  deaf  ears." 

'*  I  am  fully  persuaded  of  that,"  he  replied, 
"  but  I  have  done  my  duty  in  the  matter,  and  must 
leave  it  so." 


THE  JOURNEY  195 

"  But,  tell  me,  is  not  the  life  you  describe  and 
the  life  your  people  lead  in  Africa  rather  a  bare 
and  joyless  one?  Is  it  not  of  a  somewhat  bovine 
character,  like  the  placid  existence  of  the  kine 
who  lie  on  the  green  sward  and  chew  their  cud 
in  a  sort  of  stupid  reverie?  " 

'*  How  can  you  make  such  a  comparison  as  that, 
after  what  you  have  seen?  Was  there  anything 
bovine  or  stupid  in  the  librarian  with  whom  you 
spent  an  instructive  half  hour?  Did  the  various 
persons  you  saw  busied  with  their  occupations 
seem  to  you  to  be  dull  and  without  animation? 
Did  you  see  no  evidence  of  alert  and  skillful  ac- 
tivity in  the  day  you  spent  with  us?  Surely  you 
cannot  have  missed  entirely  the  lesson  I  intended 
to  give  you." 

"  That  is  not  my  meaning,  exactly.  I  should 
have  said  that  it  appeared  to  me  that  the  life  you 
have  described  might  be  extremely  monotonous 
and  uninteresting.  Variety  is  the  spice  of  life,  and 
you  have  nothing,  so  far  as  I  have  seen,  to  break 
into  the  dullness  of  a  life  where  there  is  no  compe- 
tition, no  rivalry,  nothing  to  spur  one  to  extraor- 
dinary effort  — " 

"  No  chance  to  quarrel,  to  look  up  to  heights 
beyond  your  reach,  or  down  upon  fellowmen  be- 
low you,  who  are  striving  to  raise  themselves  out 
of  the  depths,  no  opportunity  for  marauding  ex- 


196     THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

peditions,  no  one  to  conquer  and  win  a  glorious 
renown  by  putting  your  heel  on  his  neck,"  and  he 
would  have  continued  his  bitter  tirade,  if  I  had  not 
interrupted  him  with: 

"  No,  no.  I  simply  meant  to  say  that  such  a 
life  as  you  live  seems  rather  colorless.  You  have 
no  distractions,  no  way  of  passing  time  agreeably 
when  work  is  over,  no  amusements,  and  so  on." 

"  Oh,"  he  said,  with  a  smile,  "  I  will  confess 
that  I  misunderstood.  We  have  distractions 
enough,  fully  as  many  as  you  have.  We  are  fond 
of  games,  we  have  good  theaters,  the  young  peo- 
ple have  their  outdoor  games,  some  of  which  you 
witnessed,  and  their  balls  and  parties,  and  we 
have  finer  music,  probably,  than  you  have  ever 
heard.  I  presume  you  are  not  aware  that  the 
negro  race  is  the  only  really  musical  race  that  ever 
existed." 

"  Nonsense,"  I  exclaimed,  "  how  preposter- 
ous!" 

"  Nevertheless  it  is  a  fact.  The  negro  race,  the 
portion  you  knew,  had  never  been  civilized,  but  at 
one  time,  when  all  Europe  was  still  a  wilderness, 
the  people  occupying  the  interior  of  Africa  were 
in  a  state  of  high  civilization.  The  Egyptians 
received  the  first  impulse  from  Ethiopia.  They 
acknowledged  that  themselves.  The  negro  race, 
not  by  conquest,  but  by  migration,  penetrated  far 


THE  JOURNEY  197 

into  Asia  and  Europe,  where  the  traces  of  their 
former  presence  can  still  be  detected  in  the  curly 
hair  and  flattened  nose  of  numerous  families  in 
southeastern  Europe,  and  from  that  source  wher- 
ever their  blood  has  mingled  with  that  of  the  peo- 
ples. And  among  other  ineradicable  evidences  of 
the  far-reaching  efi^ects  of  this  negro  migration  is 
to  be  numbered  the  musical  ability  of  the  Euro- 
peans which,  while  extending  more  or  less  over  the 
whole  continent,  is  more  concentrated  in  the  south- 
east and  more  diluted  and  more  sporadic  in  its 
manifestations  in  the  west  and  north.  The  negro 
race  is  the  only  innately  musical  race,  as  a  race, 
that  the  world  has  seen,  and  even  to  this  day,  when 
the  influence  of  their  genius  in  this  respect  is  so 
widely  extended,  the  negro  is  the  only  man  that 
can  beat  perfect  time." 

"  Well,  I  must  say,  that  is  rather  an  extraor- 
dinary statement,"  I  said,  "  considering  that  so 
many  of  the  great  musical  composers  in  Europe 
have  had  straight  hair." 

*'  Very  few,  and  those  not  the  greatest,"  was 
the  reply,  "  and  although  the  curling  hair  had  been 
bred  out  of  them,  the  musical  taint  had  not.  The 
brain  often  transmits  ancestral  qualities  longer 
than  the  other  bodily  organs." 

This  gave  me  something  more  to  think  about, 
and  I  lapsed  into  silent  meditation.     On,  on,  we 


198     THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

sped  like  an  arrow,  hour  after  hour,  and  I  began 
to  feel  astonished  at  my  own  equanimity  and  com- 
plete sense  of  security,  while  rushing  through  space 
at  such  a  tremendous  speed,  and  with  a  man  whom 
I  had  only  known  for  a  little  more  than  a  day. 
And  a  negro,  too !  To  be  sure  I  had  seen  plenty 
of  reasons  for  altering  my  opinions  about  negroes. 
He  was  up,  and  I  was  down.  There  could  be 
no  doubt  about  that.  And  yet,  notwithstanding 
his  enormous  superiority  to  me,  intellectually, 
physically  and  morally,  he  was  treating  me  alto- 
gether as  an  equal  as  nearly  as  it  was  possible  to 
do  so.  His  manner  was  cordial  and  intimate,  and 
he  made  me  feel  that  I  was  his  actual  inferior, 
more  by  leading  me  by  slow  degrees  to  perceive 
and  recognize  the  fact  myself,  than  by  any  marked 
assertion  of  his  own  position.  If  I  felt,  now  and 
then,  as  if  I  were  being  instructed  it  was  because  I 
felt  like  a  pupil,  and  not  that  he  conducted  himself 
like  a  master.  He  was  as  kind  and  as  considerate 
of  my  feelings  as  a  man  could  be. 

But  our  conversation  lagged,  and  gradually  I 
fell  into  a  doze.  We  had  passed  the  tropical 
regions  and  it  began  to  grow  a  little  cool  again. 
As  I  pulled  my  wraps  together,  I  looked  up  and 
found  to  my  surprise  that  the  sun  was  near  the 
horizon  in  the  west,  and  that  our  journey  therefore, 
if  our  calculations  were  correct,  was  nearly  over. 


THE  JOURNEY  199 

I  knew  we  were  to  arrive  at  three  or  four  o'clock 
in  the  morning,  and  made  up  my  mind  to  get  a 
good  rest  beforehand,  and  the  sun  had  no  sooner 
set  than  I  snuggled  down  in  my  seat  and  began  to 
doze. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

MY    OLD    HOME 

I  THINK  I  must  have  already  fallen  asleep 
when  I  was  suddenly  aroused  by  an  awful  jerk 
and  opening  my  eyes,  found  that  we  were  shooting 
rapidly  upwards. 

"  What  is  the  matter?  "  I  exclaimed,  with  a  fee- 
ble effort  at  wit.      "Has  the  horse  run  away?" 

"  We  are  nearing  the  track  of  vessels,"  he  re- 
plied, "  and  must  mount  out  of  sight.  There  is 
one  now  just  below  the  horizon.  I  hope  you  will 
feel  no  inconvenience  from  the  height  at  which 
we  shall  travel.  I  do  not  think  we  need  rise  more 
than  a  mile,  or  a  mile  and  a  half.  We  have  only 
about  1500  miles  more  to  go  —  seven  hours,  say." 

As  we  rose,  the  cold  increased,  and  he  stooped 
and  turned  on  the  heat,  as  I  had  seen  him  do  be- 
fore. I  began  to  feel  warm  and  comfortable  and 
took  to  slumber  again. 

Another  jolt  and  I  awoke  to  find  that  we  were 
descending  toward  the  earth.  It  was  dark  and  I 
could  see  that  the  sky  was  overcast,  for  not  a 
star  was  visible,  but  it  was  not  raining,  and  the 

200 


MY  OLD  HOME  201 

atmosphere  was  mild.  Far  below  I  could  barely 
distinguish  land  and  sea.  Here  and  there  were 
twinkling  lights,  and  as  we  sank  lower  I  perceived 
that  some  of  these  were  on  the  water,  evidently 
the  lights  of  vessels,  and  those  on  land  were  some 
distance  apart,  probably  the  lights  of  watchers  or 
public  lights  along  highways  and  railways.  Pres- 
ently we  began  to  go  much  slower,  and,  on  looking 
directly  down  I  saw  that  we  were  hovering  above 
an  island  of  a  few  acres  in  extent,  in  a  large  bay 
containing  many  others  like  it. 

"  Peconic  Bay,"  he  muttered,  and  our  machine 
began  to  waver  and  move  a  little  to  one  side  or 
the  other  as  he  prepared  to  descend.  Now  I 
could  discern  a  small  house  against  a  background 
of  trees,  and  in  the  lighted  doorway  a  human 
form,  which  shortly  emerged  and  became  lost  in 
the  obscurity  of  the  night.  Now  we  were  grad- 
ually settling  down  immediately  above  a  small  en- 
closure surrounded  by  a  high  fence,  and  as  it  looked 
to  me  not  much  larger  than  our  apparatus.  How- 
ever, thanks  to  the  negro's  skillful  manipulation 
of  his  little  wheels  and  levers,  we  glided  down  into 
it  and  finally  touched  bottom  as  gently  as  a  falling 
feather,  and  stepped  out  upon  the  solid  ground. 

The  man  I  had  seen  in  the  doorway  now  came 
forward  and  greeted  my  companion  very  effus- 
ively,   and    myself    cordially    though    with    more 


202     THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

formality.  We  all  walked  toward  the  house. 
On  looking  back  I  saw  that  the  board  fence 
within  which  we  had  alighted  was  high  enough  to 
exclude  prying  eyes,  and  as  we  left  it,  the  new- 
comer, whom  I  saw  to  be  a  negro,  turned  and 
locked  the  door.  The  two  men,  indicating  to  me 
that  I  was  to  take-  a  seat  and  wait  until  they  re- 
turned, walked  away  together  among  the  trees.  I 
found  an  armchair  just  inside  the  door,  and  seated 
myself.  The  room  was  empty  and  barely  fur- 
nished, and  on  a  shelf  beside  the  door  was  a  single 
burning  candle.  I  had  not  long  to  wait  for  the 
men  presently  returned,  and  the  negro  and  myself 
were  shown  into  a  back  room,  where  two  beds  in- 
vited us  to  repose.  We  both  threw  ourselves 
down  as  we  were,  without  removing  our  clothing, 
and  were  soon  fast  asleep. 

When  I  awoke  it  was  broad  daylight.  The 
clouds  had  blown  over  and  the  sun  was  shining 
brightly.  My  companion  was  already  up  and 
busily  arranging  for  our  departure.  I  saw  that 
he  had  changed  his  attire,  and  now  he  looked  like 
any  other  colored  man  of  intelligence  and  position. 
I  rose,  washed  my  face  and  hands,  brushed  my 
hair  and  went  out  of  doors.  The  men  had  finished 
their  business,  whatever  it  was,  and  now  we  pro- 
ceeded to  the  shore,  entered  a  small  boat,  and  the 
host  of  the  island  rowed  us  over  to  the  mainland, 


MY  OLD  HOME  203 

where,  a  few  minutes  later,  we  took  a  train  for 
the  city. 

The  few  hours  of  sleep  had  done  wonders  for 
my  companion.  Whereas  the  night  before,  when 
we  arrived  he  had  seemed  very  tired  and  dull,  so 
exhausted,  in  fact,  that  I  was  somewhat  alarmed, 
now  he  was  quite  fresh  and  chipper,  and  seemed  to 
have  recovered  all  his  elasticity  of  body  and  mind, 
looking  and  behaving  much  more  like  a  man  of 
forty  than  one  of  eighty-five.  In  fact,  I  was  dis- 
posed to  think  he  had  been  drawing  a  long  bow 
when  he  gave  me  his  age. 

"  We  shall  have  to  go  back  to-night,"  he  said, 
almost  as  soon  as  we  were  comfortably  settled  in 
our  seats.  "  I  have  learned  that  the  invasion  is 
to  take  place  forthwith  and  the  fleet  of  transports 
with  the  army  on  board  left  a  week  ago.  By  this 
time  they  must  be  nearing  our  coast.  I  am  sur- 
prised that  we  did  not  see  them,  but  they  probably 
went  straight  across  and  then  along  down  on  the 
other  side.  But  we  must  get  there  before  they 
do,  at  any  cost." 

I  did  not  make  any  direct  reply  to  this  remark, 
but  proceeded  to  satisfy  my  own  curiosity  by  in- 
quiring about  our  landing  place  and  our  host  of  the 
night  before. 

"  He  is  one  of  our  familiar  agents  here,"  was 
the  reply.      "  We  have  them  all  about.     We  are 


204    THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

compelled,  for  the  present,  and  have  been  in  the 
past,  to  keep  In  touch  with  the  outside  world 
through  such  agents  as  this  one.  There  are  a 
few  scattered  negroes  here  and  in  South  America, 
descendants  of  those  who  did  not  join  in  the  great 
migratory  movement  when  we  went  to  Africa,  but 
the  solidarity  of  the  race  has  subsisted,  and  we 
can  always  depend  upon  them  for  correct  informa- 
tion about  any  hostile  movement  directed  against 
us.  Nothing  else  that  the  whites  may  do  is  of 
any  interest  to  our  people,  but  it  is  important  that 
we  should  be  forewarned  on  occasions  like  this. 
That  man  is  the  owner  of  the  small  island  where 
we  landed,  and  supports  himself  by  fishing  and 
agriculture.  The  structure  into  which  we  de- 
scended is  kept  in  good  order  by  him,  and  is  al- 
ways empty  and  ready  for  me.  I  never  send  word 
that  I  am  coming,  but  just  now,  at  this  juncture, 
he  has  been  expecting  me  and  watching  for  me 
every  night  for  a  week,  for,  of  course,  I  never 
come  in  the  daytime.  Meanwhile  he  had  been 
collecting  information,  so  that  he  was  able  to  tell 
me  in  a  few  minutes  all  that  I  required  to  know." 

"How  are  we  going  to  spend  the  day?"  I 
anxiously  inquired. 

"  We  cannot  stay  long  in  New  York,"  he  re- 
plied; "  I  must  go  to  Washington  for  a  brief  stop, 
and  then  we  will  return  to  Africa.     Perhaps  you 


MY  OLD  HOME  205 

would  like  to  remain  over  in  New  York  while  I  go 
on." 

Now,  strange  as  it  may  seem,  I  was  actually  ter- 
rified at  the  idea  of  staying  for  hours,  by  myself, 
in  the  city  I  knew  so  well,  which  had  been  my 
home  for  so  many  years.  I  had  begun  to  feel  such 
a  profound  respect  and  absolute  reliance  upon  this 
negro,  and  even,  I  am  almost  ashamed  to  say,  such 
an  affection  for  him,  that  I  could  not  bear  the  idea 
of  being  left  alone.  Besides  the  city  was  likely 
to  appear  strange  to  me.  I  should  meet  no  one  I 
knew.  The  whole  aspect  of  the  world  had  altered 
for  me  within  the  short  space  of  two  days.  And 
although  that  seemed  impossible,  there  were  the 
bold  facts,  and  notwithstanding  what  my  memory 
and  my  common  sense  told  me,  I  had  seen  and 
heard  such  things  that  I  fairly  did  not  know  what 
I  was  and  what  I  was  not.  No,  I  must  cling  to 
this  man,  until  I  came  to  myself,  or  until  that  full 
explanation  which  he  had  promised  to  make,  had 
been  unfolded  to  me. 

"  I  will  go  with  you,"  I  said.  "  I  can  think  of 
nothing  that  would  detain  me  in  New  York.  I 
am  a  being  of  the  past  and  have  no  interests  here 
now." 

"  Very  well,"  he  replied,  with  his  old  inscrutable 
smile,  "  then  we  will  go  right  on." 

And  so  we  did.     As  we  went  through  the  city 


2o6    THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

I  noticed  that  there  were  no  elevated  railroads, 
only  surface  tracks  and  subways,  and  the  streets 
were  much  brighter,  cleaner  and  handsomer  than 
they  used  to  be  in  my  time.  There  were  few 
lofty  buildings,  also,  and  the  city  seemed  to  have 
extended  laterally,  with  a  sky  line  in  every  direc- 
tion less  ragged  and  irregular  than  it  was  in  former 
days. 

On  our  way  to  Washington  I  took  occasion  to 
ask  about  the  other  nations  who  had  occupied  the 
old  world  since  the  "  great  expulsion,"  and  learned 
that  they  were  living  quietly  at  peace  among  them- 
selves, and  although  they  were  all  subject  to  gov- 
ernments still,  and  were  therefore  behind  the 
negroes  In  the  race  toward  the  great  goal,  they 
traded  much  with  one  another  with  no  artificial  re- 
strictions, and  their  relations  were  entirely  amic- 
able. They  had  a  way  of  settling  their  difficulties 
through  an  international  court,  and  they  kept  up 
their  armies  and  navies  solely  as  a  means  of  ward- 
ing off  possible  aggression  by  the  whites,  although 
the  latter  having  never  forgotten  the  terrible  les- 
son they  had  received,  were  rather  wary  of  the 
Chinese  and  Japanese,  though  still  retaining  some 
of  their  ancient  contempt  for  the  negro.  Then, 
too,  Europe  and  Asia,  to  their  mind,  had  already 
been  exploited  for  ages,  and,  as  they  thought, 
pretty  well  robbed  of  material  resources  before 


MY  OLD  HOME  207 

they  were  driven  out,  whereas  they  were  disposed 
to  look  upon  Africa  as  still  a  virgin  field,  with  un- 
told wealth  in  mineral  and  vegetable  resources, 
going  to  waste  all  these  centuries  on  account  of  the 
indolence  and  ignorance  of  "  those  confounded 
niggers." 

"  So  much  they  know  of  my  people,"  he  said 
bitterly.  "  Well,"  he  continued,  with  a  sigh, 
"  they  will  have  another  cruel  lesson  soon. 

"  And  now,  on  their  own  side  of  the  ocean," 
he  continued,  "  they  all  retain  their  quarrelsome 
and  jealous  dispositions  and  their  insatiate  greed. 
Look  at  those  men  in  the  opposite  seats,  rich,  self- 
satisfied  clutchers  of  everything  within  their  reach 
and  some  things  beyond.  Do  you  understand 
what  they  are  saying?  " 

The  men  he  referred  to  were  men  of  an  ordi- 
nary type,  such  as  I  had  seen  by  the  thousand  in 
other  days,  sleek,  fat,  well  fed,  well  clothed,  red 
faced  and  self-important.  They  had  been  en- 
gaged in  conversation  since  we  entered  the  car, 
and  one  of  them,  having  become  a  little  excited, 
had  raised  his  voice  so  that  I  heard  him  plainly, 
and  this  is  what  he  said,  as  nearly  as  I  could  gather 
from  the  strangeness  of  his  pronunciation: 

"  I  say  yes.  Come  in  with  us  on  the  ground 
floor.  Our  syndicate  is  bound  to  have  the  biggest 
shce." 


208     THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

A  demur  from  the  other. 

*'  Nonsense.  Everything  is  bound  to  go 
through  sHck  enough.  All  that  talk  is  buncombe. 
Our  troops  are  there  or  nearly  there  by  this  time, 
and  there  can't  be  much  opposition.  Our  ances- 
tors were  scared  off  to  be  sure,  but  they  hadn't  the 
facilities  for  such  work  that  we  have.  You  read, 
I  suppose,  that  Prof.  Humdrum  has  proved  that 
all  that  voodoo  business  is  scientifically  impossible. 
There  will  be  no  trouble.  Take  a  few  shares 
while  they  are  cheap.  Our  company  is  going  to 
work  ov'er  toward  the  center  and  a  little  east  of  it. 
They  say  most  of  the  gold  is  there  — " 

And  the  conversation  died  away  again  into  a 
murmur. 

"  Yes,  I  understand  him,"  I  said. 

"  Dividing  us  up  already,"  he  replied  with  a 
bitter  smile  and  turned  the  subject. 

"  As  I  was  saying,  the  whites  keep  up  their  old 
habits,  and  go  on  manufacturing  more  than  they 
need,  accumulating  food  that  they  cannot  eat, 
textiles  they  cannot  wear,  machinery  they  cannot 
use,  merchandise  they  have  no  room  for,  and  in- 
stead of  allowing  the  poor  and  starving  and  freez- 
ing portion  of  their  community  any  share  of  these 
good  things,  bend  all  their  energies  to  disposing 
of  the  surplus  abroad.  But  a  similar  condition 
of  things  exists  in  all  the  other  nations,  and  so  we 


MY  OLD  HOME  209 

have  the  singular  spectacle  of  each  of  the  white 
nations  insisting  even  with  threats  of  force,  that 
other  nations  shall  buy  the  surplus  stuff,  and  impos- 
ing unconscionable  tariff  barriers  to  prevent  other 
nations  from  selling  to  them.  Meanwhile  the 
poor  in  all  these  nations,  those  who  need  the  arti- 
cles that  one  party  is  so  determined  to  sell,  and 
the  other  so  determined  not  to  buy,  are  starving 
and  dying  of  want.  Was  there  ever  such  a  coil 
before?  And  they  all  call  themselves  Christians. 
Do  you  suppose  this  state  of  things  could  endure 
for  a  moment  longer  if  they  were  all  Christians  at 
heart?  Imagine  our  Lord,  whom  they  all  worship 
and  profess  to  look  upon  as  a  master  and  a  guide, 
imagine  him,  I  say,  coddling  the  rich,  neglecting 
and  despising  the  poor,  talking  about  the  unfit  and 
the  submerged  tenth,  and  hot  in  the  chase  after 
gold  with  all  these  humbugs.  It  nauseates  me  to 
look  at  them  and  hear  them  talk.  And  charity 
and  good  works.  What  is  that  but  giving  back 
a  minute  portion  of  their  hoarded  surplus  to  those 
from  whom  they  wrenched  it  in  the  first  place?  " 
These  were  the  bitterest  words  I  had  ever 
heard  from  my  philosophical  friend  and  made  me 
feel  a  little  uncomfortable.  I  made  no  attempt  to 
reply,  for  nothing  I  could  say  would  affect  his 
views,  and  I  was  disposed  to  attribute  the  sudden 
outburst  of  phlegm  to  the  fact  of  his  finding  him- 


210    THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

self  in  an  alien  and  hostile  environment,  in  the 
country  of  the  hereditary  and  long  hated  enemies 
of  his  race.  So  I  remained  silent  during  the  re- 
mainder of  the  journey. 

We  were  not  long  at  the  Capitol.  My  friend 
finished  his  business  in  about  an  hour,  which  I 
spent  in  looking  in  shop  windows  and  watching 
the  passers  by  in  the  streets  where  his  duties,  what- 
ever they  were,  called  him,  and  we  soon  were  back 
in  New  York,  where  \ye  took  a  subway  train  the 
length  of  the  city  and  under  the  river  to  Long 
Island.  During  this  short  trip  I  was  sometimes 
amused  and  at  other  times  provoked  by  his  running 
comments  upon  what  his  roving  and  ever  watchful 
eyes  noted  in  the  car  where  we  occupied  seats. 

"  Look  at  all  these  advertisements,"  he  would 
say;  "  the  frantic  attempts  of  all  sorts  of  people 
to  entice  other  people  into  buying  a  lot  of  things  of 
which  they  do  not  feel  the  lack.  There  is  one  of 
a  bargain  sale.  Someone  has  a  lot  of  truck  that 
he  has  never  been  able  to  dispose  of  to  his  cus- 
tomers, stuff  that  has  been  left  on  his  hands  be- 
cause ev^eryone  who  has  seen  it  has  considered  it 
undesirable,  and  he  makes  this  last  grand  struggle 
to  pass  it  along  to  someone  else  before  he  throws 
it  in  the  ragbag.  An  immense  waste  of  energy  to 
make  people  buy,  buy,  buy,  when  they  already 
have  all  they  need.     And  there  is  one  about  the 


MY  OLD  HOME  211 

newest  fashion.  What  are  the  fashions?  And 
why  are  they  constantly  changing?  Not  because 
they  are  progressively  more  beautiful,  more  be- 
coming, or  more  appropriate,  for  they  are  often 
quite  the  opposite.  No,  it  is  because  these  demon- 
driven  manufacturers  must  keep  on  producing 
and  are  obliged  to  work  off  their  product.  But 
who  gets  the  product  in  the  end?  The  persons 
who  work  and  make  it?  Those  who  need  it? 
Those  Avho  are  really  cold  and  hungry?  Oh,  no. 
Those  who  already  have  all  they  want,  but  are  de- 
luded with  the  idea  that  they  must  have  a  change. 
All  these  new  things  are  not  for  those  who  need 
them,  but  for  those  to  whom  they  are  a  bother  and 
a  nuisance. 

"  And  do  these  people  here  enjoy  this  chase 
after  money  and  constant  hunt  for  something 
new?  No,  excepting  that  it  gives  them  some- 
thing to  do,  and  distracts  their  attention  from 
themselves,  for  they  have  no  inward  resources 
of  enjoyment.  They  cannot  think.  They  bore 
themselves  so  when  they  are  alone,  and  find  soli- 
tude so  miserable,  that  they  go  out  to  bore  others 
and  lose  themselves  in  company.  Look  at  the 
faces  along  the  opposite  side  of  the  car.  How 
unhappy  they  all  are !  See  those  ladies  there,  one 
talking  and  the  other  listening,  and  both  smiling. 
How    animated    and    cheerful    their    expression! 


212     THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

You  would  think  they  were  both  most  happy  and 
contented.  Now  look.  They  have  stopped  talk- 
ing for  a  moment,  and  their  faces  take  on  their 
habitual  expression.  How  sad  they  are!  Their 
real  souls  shine  through  the  mask.  Now  they  are 
at  it  again,  laughing  and  nodding  like  two  merry 
chatterboxes  of  girls.  See  that  poor  thin,  mis- 
erable, half-starved  woman  near  the  end,  with  a 
sad,  old  faced  child  in  her  arms,  and  then  a  little 
farther  on  that  rotund  person  in  fashionable  at- 
tire, with  his  diamond  pin  and  gold-headed  cane. 
He  has  been  lunching  with  friends,  and  seems  very 
well  satisfied  with  himself.  Probably  they  spent 
enough  for  their  luncheon  to  have  fed  that  poor 
woman  and  her  boy  for  six  months.  It  is  likely 
that  he  thinks  he  had  a  fine  time  and  enjoyed  him- 
self hugely.  Perhaps  he  did.  And  yet  he  un- 
doubtedly has  his  moments  of  reflection.  Look 
at  his  paunch  and  his  mottled  jowls.  I  would 
give  him  about  two  years  more  to  live. 

"  And  yet  in  your  abundance  of  food,  some  of 
you  never  have  enough,  while  the  vast  majority 
eat  too  much.  Glance  around  this  car.  Those 
who  have  been  able  to  stow  away  the  surplus  get 
fat,  and  those  who  cannot  are  dyspeptic  and  lean, 
so  that  almost  every  man  or  woman  among  you 
above  the  age  of  forty  is  either  a  tub  or  a  bean- 
pole.    You  live  in  a  sad  world.     But  here  we 


MY  OLD  HOME  213 

are,"  and  we  left  the  subway  and  passed  on  to 
our  train. 

As  soon  as  we  were  seated  he  turned  to  me  and 
said: 

"  One  thing  more  I  think  I  ought  to  say  to 
you,  in  the  nature  of  a  warning.  Your  people 
are  gradually  losing  their  vitality  by  their  ignor- 
ant and  indiscriminating  use  of  electrical  devices. 
With  currents  overhead  and  currents  underneath, 
flowing  in  every  direction,  and  the  induced  cur- 
rents that  are  excited  by  them,  your  communities 
are  continuously  permeated  by  electrical  forces, 
which  you  have  distributed  so  carelessly  that  you 
are  dislocating  the  natural  equilibrium  of  that 
force  in  your  environment,  to  which  your  bodies 
have,  so  to  speak,  been  attuned  and  accommodated 
through  untold  ages,  and  you  are  already  begin- 
ning to  pay  the  penalty  of  your  recklessness  in  this 
respect  in  your  increasing  nervousness  and  irrita- 
bility and  general  physical  deterioration.  Tell 
your  countrymen,  when  you  go  back  to  them,  to  be 
warned  in  time," 

"  But  you  also  use  electricity  quite  as  extensively 
as  we  do,  do  you  not?  " 

"  No.  We  use  it  very  little  and  then  only 
upon  occasion.  Our  facilities  for  generating  and 
directing  it  are  always  ready,  but  we  can  create  or 
abolish   the    current   at    any   moment,    while   the 


214    THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

exigencies  of  your  manner  of  living  demand  its 
continuous  generation,  and  you  are  constantly  sur- 
rounded by  and  bathed  in  conflicting  currents  that 
are  metaphorically  tearing  your  nerves  to  pieces." 

The  remainder  of  our  journey  was  passed  in 
silence  excepting  that  when  we  were  about  half 
way  he  roused  himself  sufficiently  from  a  pro- 
found meditation  to  say: 

"  Pardon  me  for  my  bitter  words  spoken  in  the 
subway.  They  were  very  unchristian.  I  am 
ashamed  of  having  uttered  them,  but  when  I  am 
surrounded  by  your  people  the  old  race  feeling 
asserts  itself,  and  I  could  not  help  it.  I  am  very 
sorry.  Forget  what  I  have  said  in  the  heat  of 
my  indignation." 

And  as  he  settled  down  again  in  his  seat  he 
murmured  to  himself,  but  so  that  I  caught  his 
words : 

"  And  yet  all  I  said  was  true,  God  help  them." 


CHAPTER  XVII 

THE    CATASTROPHE 

AT  the  landing  we  found  the  skiff  waiting  for 
us  and  in  a  few  minutes  we  were  back  again 
on  the  island  and  preparing  to  leave.  Food  and 
drink  had  already  been  stowed  away  for  the  jour- 
ney, and  at  the  suggestion  of  my  companion  I  took 
my  seat  as  before.  He  remained  a  few  moments 
in  earnest  conversation  with  the  owner  of  the  hut, 
and  then  received  from  him  a  considerable  amount 
of  the  money  of  the  country,  giving  him  in  ex- 
change several  weighty  nuggets  of  gold  and  silver. 
Entering  the  hut  for  a  few  minutes  he  soon 
emerged  in  his  own  proper  attire.  Then  he  made 
his  inspection  of  the  machine,  going  over  every 
part  of  it  as  carefully  and  minutely  as  before,  took 
his  seat  beside  me,  nodded  good-by  to  his  friend, 
and  we  mounted  in  the  air. 

We  rose  with  great  velocity,  so  as  to  elude  ob- 
servation as  soon  as  possible,  and  started  on  our 
return  trip.  It  was  already  twilight,  and  we  prob- 
ably got  away  unnoticed.  Again  we  had  favor- 
able weather,  and  although  there  was  a  little  wind, 

215 


2i6    THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

and  the  skies  were  not  entirely  free  from  clouds, 
it  promised  to  be  a  pleasant  trip  and  one  without 
incident, 

"  We  ought  to  reach  home  by  six  o'clock  In  the 
morning,"  he  remarked,  as  he  bent  himself  to  the 
task  of  keeping  our  craft  to  her  course. 

There  was  little  said  during  the  return  journey, 
and  there  is  little  to  be  said  about  it  here.  We 
went  through  without  mishap,  and  it  was  prac- 
tically a  repetition  of  the  trip  out.  I  slept  a  good 
deal  of  the  time  during  the  day  we  spent  over  the 
ocean,  and  during  both  of  the  nights  I  was  en- 
tirely oblivious  of  the  world.  Toward  morning 
of  the  second  night  I  was  aroused  by  a  touch  upon 
my  arm,  and  opening  my  eyes  I  found  that  dawn 
was  just  beginning,  and  I  could  see  in  the  east  a 
faint  glimmer  of  light  breaking  In  upon  the  gray 
pall  that  covered  the  sky.  In  the  distance  I  could 
barely  discern  outlines  of  the  land,  and  we  were 
evidently  rapidly  nearing  home.  Home  I  A 
strange  word,  indeed,  for  me  to  use,  at  such  a 
time,  but  that  was  the  way  I  looked  upon  it,  odd 
as  it  may  appear.     What  other  home  had  I  now? 

As  we  sped  on  toward  the  rising  sun,  it  became 
lighter  very  rapidly,  and  as  we  approached  the 
coast  we  saw  the  Immense  fleet  of  transports  and 
convoys  already  at  anchor  and  landing  their  troops 
and  supplies.     The  work  appeared  to  be  about 


THE  CATASTROPHE  217 

completed,  for  several  large  bodies  of  men  could 
be  seen  in  the  distance  already  on  the  march. 

"  They  are  losing  no  time,"  said  my  friend,  who 
had  the  eye  of  a  hawk;  "  they  have  sent  the  artil- 
lery ahead  long  ago.  See  them,  do  you,  on  the 
horizon?  " 

But  I  could  see  nothing  of  them  and  said  so. 

"  They  are  not  more  than  twenty  miles  or  so 
from  our  frontier,"  he  added,  "  and  will  probably 
be  there  by  noon  or  shortly  after.  In  fact,  I 
should  not  be  surprised  if  some  of  the  force  were 
already  confronting  us,  and  had  taken  up  their  po- 
sitions.    We  have  no  time  to  lose." 

"  How  large  an  army  do  you  suppose  they 
have?" 

"  I  have  learned  that  there  are  about  two  hun- 
dred thousand  of  all  arms  in  the  expedition,"  was 
the  reply,  "  That  being  considered  ample  to  take 
possession  of  the  territory  they  covet  and  bear 
down  all  opposition." 

"  And  how  do  you  propose  to  meet  such  a 
force?" 

"  That  you  will  see.  I  had  hoped  that  you 
might  be  spared  the  worst,  but  if  they  are  obstin- 
ate, your  nerves  will  need  bracing  to  witness  the 
consequences  without  collapsing  yourself." 

"  Nonsense,"  I  replied.  "  I  can  stand  any- 
thing I  am  likely  to  see." 


2i8     THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

We  were  now  near  the  coast,  and  our  craft  had 
evidently  been  seen,  for  many  of  the  officers  and 
men  were  stretching  their  necks  to  look  up  in  our 
direction,  and  we  heard  a  few  rifle  shots  as  we 
passed  over  them,  and  I  thought  I  heard  the  whis- 
tle of  bullets.  The  negro  showed  not  the  slight- 
est concern,  however,  and  we  kept  our  course  like 
an  arrow. 

"  It  makes  no  difference  here  whether  we  are 
seen  or  not,"  he  said;  "  they  will  procure  no  in- 
formation that  they  will  ever  be  able  to  take 
home." 

In  a  few  moments  we  were  hovering  over  the 
place  from  which  we  started  four  days  before,  and 
settled  down  gently  behind  the  house.  We  both 
went  in  to  refresh  ourselves  after  our  long  journey 
and  my  host  retired  to  his  room  for  a  short  rest, 
while  I,  who  had  all  the  sleep  I  needed  on  the  way, 
went  out-of-doors  to  see  what  was  going  on.  I 
knew  no  one,  and  could  talk  with  no  one  around 
me,  and  nobody,  after  the  first  glance,  paid  me 
the  slightest  attention,  and  so  I  seated  myself  on  a 
bench  in  the  open  air,  and  looked  about  with  in- 
terest at  the  busy  population  of  the  place.  Nat- 
urally they  were  all  in  a  state  of  excitement,  and 
were  running  aimlessly  about  like  ants  in  an  ant 
hill,  I  thought;  meeting,  talking,  separating,  with 
a  continual  buzz,  buzz,  buzz,  that  clearly  indicated 


THE  CATASTROPHE  219 

their  curiosity  and  interest  in  pending  events. 
Boys  and  girls  darted  here  and  there  with  mes- 
sages, and  the  older  people,  while  graver  and 
more  composed,  yet  showed  traces  of  apprehension 
and  dismay.  They  did  not  all,  it  appeared  to  me, 
possess  the  extreme  confidence  of  my  host,  and 
I  myself,  notwithstanding  the  marvels  that  I  had 
witnessed,  did  not  feel  sure  that  they  were  all 
practical  in  their  application,  and  particularly  on 
such  an  extensive  scale  as  would  be  required  in  the 
conflict  that  seemed  to  be  imminent.  While  I  was 
weighing  the  chances  in  my  own  mind,  my  com- 
panion made  his  appearance,  and  beckoning  to  me, 
started  down  toward  the  public  square.  I  fol- 
lowed and  soon  caught  up  with  him,  and  we  walked 
on  together  to  the  camera  building. 

On  our  way,  the  negro  informed  me  that  a  mes- 
senger had  been  sent  with  a  flag  of  truce  to  the 
camp  of  the  enemy,  with  a  demand  that  the  ex- 
pedition be  abandoned  and  the  forces  withdrawn 
from  the  country,  and  the  threat  that  noncompli- 
ance would  entail  the  most  terrible  consequences, 
and  that  few  of  them  could  hope  to  escape  un- 
scathed. The  messenger  had  just  returned  with  a 
most  contemptuous  and  derisive  refusal  and  a 
counter  demand  for  instant  surrender. 

"  Poor  fools!  "  he  murmured.  "  They  do  not 
know." 


220    THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

As  we  passed  along,  I  noticed  at  frequent  in- 
tervals small  heaps  of  some  brownish  material  and 
here  and  there  poles  had  been  erected,  bearing 
upon  their  tops  bundles  of  the  same  stuff.  I  could 
also  see  in  various  directions  small  spheres  float- 
ing in  the  air  without  apparent  support,  like  toy 
balloons. 

We  had  now  arrived  at  the  camera  building  and 
entered  the  same  apartment  I  had  been  in  before. 
The  old  man,  venerable  and  dignified,  was  al- 
ready there  and  the  two  friends  greeted  each  other 
effusively.  Some  changes  had  been  made  in  the 
interval  of  my  visits.  The  furniture,  simple  as 
it  had  been,  was  gone,  and  the  entire  floor  space 
was  open  so  that  movement  was  free  in  any  di- 
rection. The  roof  had  been  removed,  and  the 
building  was  now  open  to  the  sky,  and  fully  ex- 
posed to  wind,  sun  and  rain.  At  one  side,  near  the 
wall,  was  a  long  row  of  knobs  or  buttons,  which  I 
had  not  noticed  before,  and  therefore  took  to  be 
recently  put  there.  Otherwise  things  were  unal- 
tered. 

After  a  short  talk  between  the  friends,  the  cen- 
tral knob  was  manipulated  by  the  old  man,  and 
although  the  midday  sun  was  blazing  down  upon 
us,  the  picture  on  the  wall  was  as  vivid  as  ever. 
We  could  see  the  camp  of  the  enemy  with  the 
greatest  clearness  and  In  every  detail,   and   ob- 


THE  CATASTROPHE  221 

served  that  their  guns  were  already  in  position  to 
begin  a  bombardment.  As  I  gazed  intently  upon 
the  scene,  there  rose  all  along  the  border  line  ma- 
chines like  that  in  which  we  made  our  over  sea 
journey,  and  from  them  or  rather  from  horizontal 
connecting  lines  that  extended  along  the  entire 
front  hung  other  lines  touching  the  earth.  Slowly 
and  majestically  rose  these  curious  craft,  while 
the  trailing  lines  unwound  behind  them,  until  they 
were  above  the  range  of  missiles  and  then  they 
halted  and  remained  suspended  in  the  air.  This 
phenomenon  evidently  surprised  the  military  men, 
and  they  were  considerably  nonplussed  at  first,  for 
we  saw  them  gathering  in  knots  and  using  their 
glasses,  while  they  consulted  together  in  some  con- 
fusion. After  a  while  they  were  apparently  re- 
assured and  went  on  briskly  with  their  preparations 
for  serious  business. 

Presently  puffs  of  white  vapor  were  visible 
where  the  guns  were  located.  Firing  had  begun. 
Now  I  saw  the  meaning  of  the  line  of  flyers  with 
their  drooping  attachments.  They  were  the  first 
line  of  defense.  The  shells  could  never  pass  their 
line.  That  I  knew  from  what  I  had  seen  of  that 
peculiar  mechanism.  But  to  my  surprise,  as  the 
firing  increased  in  rapidity  and  volume,  there 
were  explosions  and  showers  of  dust  not  far  away 
from   where   we   were,    and   in   another   moment 


222     THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

something  burst  immediately  overhead.  I  was  as- 
tonished and  dismayed.  Can  it  be,  I  thought,  that 
their  vaunted  protective  measures  are  futile,  after 
all?  But  almost  immediately  the  truth  flashed 
upon  me.  These  explosions  were  caused  by  the  lit- 
tle heaps  and  floating  spheres  that  I  had  observed 
and  were  a  trick  to  deceive  the  enemy  and  lead 
them  to  suppose  their  shots  had  taken  effect.  I 
could  see  them  watching  the  path  of  the  shells,  evi- 
dently losing  sight  of  them  as  they  reached  our 
line,  and  then  turning  toward  one  another  with  a 
nod  of  satisfaction  as  they  saw  the  explosions  in 
the  air  and  on  the  ground,  and  detected  the  clouds 
of  dust  that  were  constantly  being  thrown  up. 
The  bombardment  was  incessant  for  nearly  two 
hours,  and  meanwhile  there  had  been  no  return 
from  our  side.  The  enemy  were  evidently  per- 
plexed and  began  to  hold  consultations  again.  At 
this  point  the  flyers  began  to  descend  slowly  toward 
the  ground,  retiring  to  the  rear  as  they  did  so,  and 
the  enemy,  perceiving  the  movement,  ceased  their 
artillery  fire,  and  awaited  developments.  They  did 
not  halt  long,  but  quickly  concluded  that  our  side 
had  been  cowed  and  would  be  an  easy  prey.  There 
had  been  no  counter  fire  and  there  were  no  forti- 
fications or  defensive  works  of  any  kind,  so  far 
as  they  could  detect,  and  it  soon  became  evident, 
from  their  actions,  that  they  were  getting  ready 


THE  CATASTROPHE  223 

for  an  assault  in  force.  Their  columns  were 
rapidly  brought  forward  and  the  entire  army 
seemed  to  be  advancing  to  attack.  What,  I  won- 
dered, would  the  negroes  do  now?  My  compan- 
ion was  as  calm  and  cool  as  ever,  but  the  old  man 
who,  during  the  bombardment  had  been  extraordi- 
narily alert  and  active  for  so  old  a  person,  darting 
from  one  side  to  the  other  and  pressing  the  knobs 
which  evidently  produced  the  detonations  I  had 
heard,  was  now  perfectly  still,  but  leaning  forward 
a  little,  with  his  hand  upon  a  long  lever  that  I  had 
not  previously  noticed,  for  it  had  lain  in  contact 
with  the  wall,  and  being  painted  or  colored  in  the 
same  shade,  had  been  inconspicuous.  Now  he 
had  pulled  it  out  a  trifle,  and  stood  like  a  statue, 
awaiting  developments. 

At  this  moment  my  friend  leaned  over  to  me 
and  whispered,  as  if  he  were  in  fear  of  disturbing 
or  distracting  the  attention  of  the  other: 

"  Be  all  attention.  When  you  hear  a  loud  hiss- 
ing noise,  cover  your  eyes,  or  you  will  go  blind." 

We  waited  in  breathless  suspense.  On  came 
the  soldiers  who  were  now  near  our  line,  and  were 
beginning  to  advance  at  a  double  quick  step.  Sud- 
denly I  heard  music,  singing  voices,  giving  forth 
surely  the  sweetest,  mournfullest  and  saddest 
strains  that  ever  fell  on  mortal  ear.  My  compan- 
ion whispered: 


224    THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

"  It  is  the  women  and  children  singing  a  dirge 
for  your  countrymen." 

Tears  came  into  my  eyes.  What's  that?  A 
loud  long  hiss.  I  threw  my  coat  over  my  face  and 
covered  my  eyes  with  my  hands.  There  was  a 
blinding  white  flash  that  seemed  to  flood  the  air 
around  us,  a  sudden  silence,  and  then  a  roar,  the 
most  tremendous  noise  I  think  that  ever  shook  the 
earth.  I  felt  the  ground  tremble.  An  earth- 
quake. I  was  bewildered  and  threw  off  my  coat. 
Silence.  The  negroes  were  standing  like  statues. 
And  then  I  saw,  horror  of  horrors,  that  before  me 
where  a  moment  ago  had  been  rushing  armies  of 
active  men,  brimming  with  the  joy  of  life  and  eager 
for  combat  and  glory,  were  blackened  sticks  and 
stumps,  distorted  beyond  conception  and  looking 
like  the  charred  remains  of  a  forest  fire. 

I  was  stiff  with  horror.  And  then  the  heavens 
were  opened,  and  down  came  torrents  of  rain. 
Even  as  I  gazed,  the  blackened  forms  melted  away, 
beaten  down  by  the  falling  deluge  into  indistin- 
guishable mud  over  the  surface  of  the  plain. 

Before  I  could  recover  from  this  dreadful  shock, 
to  my  great  astonishment  my  calm  and  dignified 
friend,  who  had  never  more  than  smiled,  burst 
into  a  coarse  guffaw,  and  clapping  me  on  the 
shoulder,  shouted  in  my  ear: 

"  Do  the  crops  a  lot  of  good,  hey  I  " 


THE  CATASTROPHE  225 

I  whirled  round  in  amazement,  and  found  my- 
self gazing  upon  the  mild,  blue  eyes  and  wagging 
chin  whiskers  of  my  New  Hampshire  landlord, 
who  was  shaking  with  laughter. 

"  Gee  whillikins,  that  was  a  soaker.  You  are 
wet  to  the  skin.  I'd  no  idee  you  was  here. 
Come  along  down  to  the  house  and  git  dried  off." 

And  even  yet  my  memory  often  harks  back  to 
that  happy  valley  and  contented  people,  and  then 
I  wonder  — 


L  ENVOI 
THE  WHITE  man's  BURDEN   IS   HIMSELF 


Date  Due 

1 

Form   335 — 2. 

,M— 7  35— B-M 

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